LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 






THRONE-LIFE. 



THRONE-LIFE: 



OR- 



THE HIGHEST CHEISTIAN LIFE. 



REV. GEO. B. PECK, 

{Author of '' 8tej)s and Studies,''^) 



*'Now unto Him that is able to do exceediug abuDdantly 
above all that we ask or think, according to the power 
that worketh in us — unto Him be glory in the Church, by 
Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. 
Amen." Eph. 3: 20, 21. 



published by 

The Watch woei) Publishing Co.. 

Boston, Mass. 

1888. 




oV 



^%.i 




COPYKIGHT, 

By GEO. B. PECK, 

1888. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface ix, x 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory — The Unity of the Divine Econ- 
omy IN Nature and Grace 11-35 

An Inspired Parallelism 12 

The Typical Mould 12 

The Basis-Connection 13 

The Key- Words 14 

The Normal Order of the Key-Words 17 

God's Typical Plan in Nature 17 

God's Anti-Typical Plan in Grace 24 

The Key-Words in the light of the Incarnation. . 25 

The Divine Evolution 25 

The Eternal Prevision 28 

Adjunctive Human Testimony 30 

The Secret of the Darkness 33 

CHAPTER II. 

What is Throne-Life ? 36-52 

The Believer's Apprehension of Christ's Death.. 42 
The Believer's Apprehension of Christ's Resur- 

tion 43 

The Believer's Apprehension of Christ's Exalta- 
tion 49 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Need of Throne-Life 53-95 

The Need Felt 53 

The Need Analyzed 60 

The First Comparison — The Two Adams 61 

The Second Comparison — The Two Israels 64 

The Snare of Success 84 

The Snare of Suspense 88 

The Snare of Satisfaction 91 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Possibility of Thkone-Life 96-136 

The First Consideration — Scripture Statements 

as to Our Enthronement with Christ 98 

The Second Consideration — The Office of the 

Holy Spirit to Interpret to us our Heavenly 

Association 101 . 

The Third Consideration — The Province of 

Faith to Realize Our Association 119 

CHAPTER V. 

The Power in Throne-Life 137-182 

The Associated Privileges of Throne-Power 137 

The Locality of Throne-Power 142 

The Nature and Measure of Throne-Power 145 

The Occasions of Throne-Power 150 

The Essential Man-ward Element in Throne- 
Power 159 

The Modes in which Throne-Power is Exhibited. 167 

CHAPTER VI. 

How TO Attain Throne-Life 183-213 

I. The Inquiring Believer Dealing with Himself. 184 



Contents. vii 

Case 1. Satanic Assault Through Doubts 184 

Case 2. Satanic Assault Through Blasphemous 

or Disgusting Suggestions 185 

Case 3. Satanic Assault Through Mysterious Im- 186 

pressions, Voices, or Visions 186 

Case 4. Satanic Assault Through Invalidism 187 

Case 5. Satanic Assault Through Thwarted Evan- 
gelistic, Pastoral, or Christian Service 188 

Case 6. Satanic Assault Through Perversion of 

Natural Graces and Gifts 189 

Case 7. Satanic Assault Through Trial. 190 

II. The Inquiring Believer Dealing with Scrip- 
ture 191 

1 . Searching for the Facts of Doctrine 192 

2. Searching for the Key to the Kealization of 
the Facts 193 

3. Using the Key when Found 194 

4. The Key Opens the Door to Experience 196 

III. The Inquiring Believer Dealing with Satan. 198 

The Order of Battle 198 

The Result of the Battle 200 

IV. Some Actual Instances of Attainment 201 

Instance 1 201 

Instance 2 203 

Instance 3 . 204 

Instance 4 205 

Instance 5 2Q7 

V. How to Maintain the Experience 212 

CHAPTER VII. 

Hindrances to Attaininient 214-236 

First Hindrance : Imperfect Desire 216 

Second Hindrance : Sentimental Head-Knowledge 
of the Doctrine 218 



viii Contents, 

Third Hiudrance : Current Proverbs, and Tradi- 
tions of the Elders 219 

Fourth Hindrance : Remnants of Self-Confldence. 220 

Fifth Hindrance : Seeking the Realization of an 
Experience, Rather than the Realization of 
Christ in Experience 221 

Sixth Hindrance : Inadequate Apprehension of 
the Scriptures 222 

Seventh Hindrance : Neglecting to Tarry at 
Gilgal 224 

Eighth Hindrance : Failure to Discern that it is 
the Purpose of the Holy Ghost to Over-lap and 
Antedate the Dispensations in our Experience, 
by Imparting Earnests of the Fulness to Come, 
in Proportion to our Faith 228 



PREFACE. 



It may be best to inform the readers of this 
little volume, that, if they begin with the second 
chapter, they will arrive at a clear view of the 
contents. Indeed, most readers will do well to 
omit the first chapter on a first perusal of the 
book, as it is only remotely introductory^ while 
the second chapter is immediately so. 

Although the author believes that the concep- 
tion of thought, and the line of investigation 
here presented may be regarded, when taken 
as a whole, as in a manner new, yet he is aware 
that, as will be obvious to all, many of the 
detached portions of the subject treated, and 
also of its combinations, are only fruits of the 
study and suggestion of others. Indeed, in the 
chapter on ''The 'Need of Throne-life," the 
author has drawn largely from a very suggestive 



X Preface, * 

and interesting book entitled, '' The Satan of 
Scripture," by Rev. James Ormiston.* 

A portion of the fifth chapter, on the ''Power 
in Throne-life," was originally contributed by 
the author to the The Watchiuord^ in an article 
designated, ''Ideal Faith." 

And now, whatever each reader's judgment 
may be concerning the degree of spiritual benefit 
he derives from reading, the author's purpose in 
preparing and publishing has been most praj^er- 
ful ; and therein he believes he has been divinely 
guided. Therefore he now commits the volume, 
for circulation, interpretation, and edification, 
unto the providential care of the enthroned 
Head of the Church ; whose Name is blessed 
forevermore ! 

*Publislied by John F; Shaw & Co., London, and to be 
obtained at the office of "The Watchword," Boston. Price 
$1.50. 

Boston, Mass., Sept. 26th, 1888. 



THRONE-LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE ECONOMY IN NATURE 
AND GRACE. 

TT has been well said, that all there is of God 
is in the Father ; all that may be seen of God 
is in the Son : and all that may be felt of God is 
in the Spirit. In our salvation all the Three-in- 
One are active. Ultimate salvation, progress- 
ing from faith to faith, from strength to strength, 
and from glory to glory, embraces at the first, 
an experience of union ^?^ Christ tuith the 
Father, and finally of union with Christ in the 
Father ; * as it is purposed by the Father, 
secured by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. 
Sinful man was far distant from the holy God, 
yet God loved man and yearned towards him ; 

*Col. 3:3; John 17: 21, 23. 



12 Throne-Life. 

and ordained an At-one-ment through Jesus 
Christ. Our salvation, in its conscious begin- 
ning in regeneration, and in its conscious con- 
tinuance in Divine fellowship, centers in Christ ; 
whether viewed as purposed by the Father, or 
applied by the Spirit. The Father has pre- 
destined us to be conformed to the image of His 
Son,* and we are "changed into the same image, 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of 
the Lord." t 

AN INSPIRED PARALLELISM. 

The foregoing truths will all open up to our 
view, as not only established in the eternal 
counsels of the Infinite, but as also divinely 
harmonized with the pre-arranged system of all 
things, if we but patiently trace the inspired 
parallelism to be observed between the opening 
verses of the book of Genesis, the first portion 
of the Gospel of John, and the beginning of the 
first epistle of John. 

THE TYPICAL MOULD. 

The successive topics presented in these pas- 

*Rom. 8: 29. t2 Cor. 3: 18. 



Unity of the Divine Economy, 13 

sages of Scripture are : the Divine process in 
physical creation, the Divine process in spirit- 
ual re-creation or regeneration, and the Divine 
process in maintaining spiritual vitality in the 
regenerated. And these passages, taken to- 
gether, exhibit the fact that the Divine plan of 
operation in nature, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ as the Eternal Word, is the typical mould 
for the Divine plan of operation in grace, 
through Jesus Christ as the God-Man. 

THE BASIS-CONNECTION. 

Observe the evident basis-connection between 
these portions of Scripture as to two particulars. 
First, the date with which each record starts 
is th€ same : ''In the beginning God " ; ''In the 
beginning was the Word"; "That which was 
from the beginning." Secondly, each passage 
exhibits the plurality in the God-head: "In 
the beginning God \_EloKim^ one of several 
Hebrew plural names for the Deity,] created 
the heavens," etc. ; "In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
word was God"; "That which was from the 



14 'Throne-Life, 

beginning . . . the Word of Life : for the 
Life was manifested . . . that Eternal Life 
which was with the Father, and was manifested 
unto us." 

There is yet a third particular serving to 
connect the passage in Genesis with that in the 
Gospel of John, since both affirm that the Divine 
utterance originated the work of creation in its 
successive stages. In Genesis we read, that 
'^ God said, Let there be light ; " '' Let there be 
a firmament ; " '' Let the dry land appear," etc. ; 
and in the Gospel we read, that all things were 
made by the Eternal Word, " and without Him 
was not anything made that was made." This 
will suffice to settle the evident basis-connec- 
tion between the passages. 

THE KEY-WORDS. 

The parallelism in the structure and progress 
of thought in the three passages may be per- 
ceived by tracing the similar use of certain key- 
words, or their equivalent ideas, in the treat- 
ment of the themes proper to each passage ; the 
themes being, as already stated, the Divine 



In Nature and Grace. 15 

process in creation, the Divine process in spirit- 
ual re-creation or regeneration, and the Divine 
process in the maintenance of spiritual vitality 
in the regenerated. These key-words, or their 
equivalent ideas, are the following: ''dark- 
ness," '' light,'' ''life," and " word." 

Thus : as to the first term in the list, there is 
a condition of " darkness" depicted in all three 
passages. In Genesis, it is the physical dark- 
ness of chaos that is designated — "darkness 
was upon the face of the deep ; " in the Gospel , 
it is the dense carnal darkness of the unre- 
i^enerate — "the lioht shineth in darkness, and 
the darkness comprehended it not ; " and in the 
Epistle, it is the spiritual darkness which is wont 
to re-gather about the pathway of the regener- 
ated when they stray beyond the condition of 
Divine communion — " If we say that we have 
fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we 
lie, and do not the truth." 

The Divine mind is portrayed in these 
passages as being correspondingly averse to the 
chaotic, physical darkness depicted in Genesis, 
and the spiritual darkness presented in the 



16 Throne-Life. 

Gospel and Epistle : and as alike proceeding to 
overcome these conditions, and after similar 
methods. Moreover, in each case we see that 
the power of the light in dissipating the 
darkness meets with only partial success ; the 
Divine alternative, then, being to separate the 
newly created light from the remaining undissi- 
pated darkness. Thus : in Genesis the undissi- 
pated darkness, called "Night," co-exi«ts with 
the light, called ''Day," but divided from it; 
and, analogously, in the Gospel and the Epistle, 
the spiritual light and the undissipated spiritual 
darkness are both present, but apart and dis- 
tinct. And this accords with other Scripture : 
"For what fellowship hath righteousness with 
unrighteousness? and what communion hath 
light with darkness? and what concord hath 
Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that 
believeth with an infidel ? . . . Wherefore, Come 
ye out from among them, and be ye separate, 
saith the Lord" (2 Cor. 6 : 14-17). 

Thus, in the relation which the above ideas 
of light and darkness hold to each other in these 
passages of Scripture, we see that the Divine 



Unity of the Divine Economy. 17 

action in nature prefigures the Divine action in 
grace. But this will become plainer still by 
considering these terms, '^ light" and ''dark- 
ness," in their connection with the other terms 
already mentioned, " life" and " word." And, 
on examination, we discover that 

THE NOEMAL OKDER OF THE KEY-WORDS, 

or of their equivalent ideas, as the case may be, 
is that, in the procession of influence to antag- 
onize the ''darkness," the "light" emerges 
from the "life," and the "life" from the "word" ; 
so that the "word" always lies back of the 
"life," and the "life" back of the "light." 
To observe this clearly, let us compare the 
typical and anti-typical plans of God, as pre- 
sented in these passages. 

god's typical plan in nature. 

In Genesis — the book of truths in the germ, 
which are expressed in statements that bud and 
blossom into their maturity of meaning only 
under the focal rays of Scripture further on — 
we find but one of the three allied terms in the 



18 Throne-Life, 

letter of the text, the term ''light": "And 
God said, Let there be light, and there was 
light " The two other allied terms are found 
present in their equivalent ideas ; one in the 
text just cited, and the other in the context. 
The term '' word," in the aspect of the Word 
that was with God in the beginning, and was 
God, and created all things, is found, by impli- 
cation, in the statement of the Divine utterance, 
''And God said " ; and the term '' life " is 
impliedly present in the previous verse, in the 
mention of the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
''And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
the waters." 

If now, the alleged rule holds as to the order 
of the terms, then in the instance of the birth 
of light as here narrated, the power of " life" 
should intervene between the Divine "word" 
of command and the resultino- ''lio:ht." And 
SO, in fact, though it is not stated in the con- 
ciseness of the letter, it would seem that it must 
have intervened, if scientific truth is to be found 
in either of the views which scholars hold con- 
cerning the nature of light ; neither view being 



In Nature and Grace. 19 

in conflict with the teachings of Scripture. 
There are two prominent theories regarding 
light. What is known as the '' Mocle-of-motion 
theory" was adopted, after some hesitation, by 
Newton, and has been the currently accepted 
view among scientists ever since. The other is 
the opposing theory of what is designated " the 
Substantial Philosophy," and has been advanced 
within a few years w^ith much ability. We 
crave the reader's patience while we touch upon 
each of these views, and recall wiiat is possibly 
familiar, in order to make good our statement 
above. 

According to the first theory, light is the 
etfect of ceaseless and inconceivably rapid 
vibrations or undulations in a tenuous, invisible 
substance called " ether," aflSrmed to be uni- 
versal in space. If this is so, then, at the 
creation of light, the primal luminous waves of 
motion must have been propagated by the 
impulse of an infinite force, resident in an 
intelligent and infinite Life, in response to, and 
in co-operation with the Divine Word of com- 
mand. Now, just such an adequate life-force 



20 Throne-Life. 

we have seen to be already actively present in 
the moving — Dr. Young translates it " flutter- 
ing " — of the Spirit of God upon the face of the 
waters. And, moreover, from Job 26 : 13, and 
Psalm 104 : 30, we learn that the Divine Spirit 
was the executive of the Godhead in the work 
of creation ; and from Romans 8:2, that He is 
"the Spirit of the life [whether physical, psy- 
chical, or spiritual life] in Christ Jesus," who 
''in the beginning was with God," and " was 
God," and by whom " all things were made," and 
in whom "was life" (John 1: 1-4), so that 
He was "from the beginning, the Word of 
Life" (1 John 1 : 1). Thus, consistently with 
possible truth in this theory, we have the 
alleged order of the foregoing key-words estab- 
lished. 

The recent and opposite theory denies the 
existence of any universal ether, and, of course, 
the possibility of the undulations, and affirms, 
instead, that light is far more than a mere 
result of motion ; that, though it is immaterial, it 
is a veritable entity, and one of a set of kindred 
but distinct entities, of the nature of forces, 



Unity of the Divine Economy, 21 

among which are heat, magnetism, electricity, 
gravity, and other familiar agents. These 
forces are regarded as ever-existent, though 
they may not always be apparent in producing 
phenomena, nor even immediately engaged in 
producing, since it is believed they may act 
singly, or in combination, or may, in accord- 
ance with the Divine purpose, be recalled into, 
and unite with the parent fountain of all force in 
God. 

Now, if one accredits this theory, why then, 
it is hardly otherwise than conceivable that the 
Divine X2/fe-force, already seen to be actively 
present in the realm of benighted nature, in the 
fluttering of the Spirit upon the waters, con- 
joined with the Divine Word-ioxQe in project- 
ing the physical force of light athwart the 
primeval darkness. Here, then, w^e have again 
the same order of the key- words established. 

But here, some of our readers may scruple 
as to whether all that we contend for as to the 
order of the terms, while it may not be incon- 
sistent with the truth of either theory, is equal 1}^ 
satisfactory when placed beside the brief sim- 



22 Throne-Life. 

plicity of the verse in Genesis, ''And God said, 
Let there be light, and there was light." It 
may be felt that we are straining the Scripture, 
and forcing a meaning, by interpolating state- 
ments which the inspired Word will not admit. 
An additional pause is therefore needed to show 
that other portions of the first chapter of Gene- 
sis virtually authorize the interpolated meaning- 
objected to, by giving similar brief and simple 
statements, which are immediately followed by 
explanatory verses — verses so constructed as 
to serve, when connected with other Scriptures, 
to confirm us in holding the conclusions regard- 
ing the order of the key-words which we have 
stated. 

For instance, in verses 14, 15, w^e have the 
concise statement, ''Let there be lights in the 
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from 
the night: and let them be for signs, and for 
seasons, and for days, and for years; and let 
them be for lights in the firmament of the 
heaven to give light upon the earth ; and it was 
so." Yet it is immediately added, "And God 
made two great lights ; the greater light to rule 



In Nature and Grace, 23 

the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; 
He made the stars also. And God set them in 
the firmament of the heaven to give light upon 
the earth, and to rule over the day and over the 
night, and to divide the light from the darkness." 
To what purpose is this repetition in detail, with 
the variance only of the words, ''And God 
made,'' ''And God set,'' in place of, "And God 
said," if it is not designed to show that a dis- 
tinct Divine agency intervened between the 
decree and the result? Surely, such is the 
design. And now, moreover, as completely 
harmonizing the view we have taken, we 
learn from the book of Job, that the Divine 
agency here employed was none other than that 
of the Third Person of th^ Trinity, " The Spirit 
of the Life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2), who, 
as the creative Word in the beoinnino- «' made 
all things," and in whom " was life" (John 1 : 
1-4). For we read in Job 26 : 13, " By His 
Spirit He hath garnished the heavens " — with 
the sun, moon and stars, surely ! 

By a similar comparison of Gen. 1 : 20-25 
with Psalm 104 : 25-30, the reader will find, in 



24 Throne-Life. 

the creation of fishes and other marine inhabit- 
ants, an additional corroboration in point. 

We conclude, therefore, by the parity of 
reasoning in the argument already pursued, that 
the Divine process in nature in overcoming the 
primitive physical darkness, was effected through 
the allied agency of the Word, life and light, 
and after a prescribed order of operation. We 
are now to observe the likeness of 

god's anti-typical plan in grace. 

Turning to the designated passages in John's 
Gospel and Epistle, we see at a glance that the 
key-words are all there in the letter, and fall 
into the normal order, of the " word" back of 
the '' life," and the '' life " back of the '' light." 
For we read in the Gospel, " In the beginning 
was the Word .... in Him was life, and the 
life was the light of men ; and the light shineth 
in darkness." And again in the Epistle, '' That 
which was from the beginning . . . the Word 
of life ; for the life was manifested . . . that 
eternal life which was with the Father . . . 
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all 



Unity of the Divine Economy, 25 

.... If we walk in the light, as He is in the 
light, we have fellowship," etc. The likeness 
of the plans is therefore seen. 

THE KEY-W^OEDS IN THE LIGHT OF THE INCAR- 
NATION. 

Observing thus far, all is familiar and trite, 
in view of the ground gone over. But there is 
a higher level of observation from which to 
read the key-words as they are used in these 
passages to set forth the plan of grace. For, 
just here, there is introduced a new feature in 
the record, — the incarnation of our Lord ; in 
consideration of which the terms ^'word,*' 
''life," and "light," acquire an added signifi- 
cance, whereby the scheme of grace is seen to 
immeasurably transcend the scheme of nature, 
without the thread of unity being broken. For 
now, in association with the incarnation of the 
Son of God, the characteristic of each of these 
terms is intensified into a personality, so that 
we are brought face to face with 

THE DIVINE EVOLUTION. 

For we read, as to the term "word," "In 



26 Throne-Life. 

the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God . . . 
and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us ; and we beheld His glory, the glory 
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of 
grace and truth;" and as to the term *' life," 
^'For the Life was manifested, and we have 
seen it, . . . that eternal Life which was with 
the Father, and was manifested unto us." 

Here the '' Life" is seen to have been from 
the beginning with God, even as the '' Word " 
was; and when ''the Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us," then "the Life was mani- 
fested unto us," and '' seen," Moreover, the 
Word that was '' made flesh and dwelt among 
us," bore the character of the " Word of Life " 
which was "from the beginning," and which 
the apostle says, '' we have heard, ... we 
have seen with our eyes, . . . we have looked 
upon, and our hands have handled." 

And as to the remaining term, '' light," we 
read, '' God is Light, and in Him is no dark- 
ness at all ... . If we w^alk in the lio:ht, as 
He is in the light, we have fellowship," etc. 



In Nature and Grace. 27 

Here, we see that God not only dwells in light, 
and is indwelt by light, but is, indeed. Light 
Himself. And, moreover, as to the incarnation 
of this God-Light, we are told, -'The Light 
shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre- 
hended it not .... That was the True 
Light which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world. He was in the w^orld . . . 
and the world knew Him not. He came unto 
His own, and His own received Him not." It 
was in full consciousness of the fact that '' God 
is Light," that Jesus said, '' As long as I am in 
the workl, I am the Light of the world." And 
concerning the glimpse of the city of God to 
come, which was granted to the Apocalyptic 
seer, we are told that '' the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof." 

Is not, therefore, the acme in the progress of 
thought in these passages reached, in the idea 
of the Divine Essence not only being back of 
the Word, Life and Light, and not even simply 
indwelling them, but also, in fact, constituting 
them, one and all? Here, then, in this revela- 
tion of God as the Word back of God as the 



28 Throne-Life. 

Life, and God as the Life back of God as the 
Light, and, moreover, God as the Light emer- 
gent from God as the Life, and God as the Life 
emergent from* God as the Word, we reach the 
true doctrine of Evolution ; not in the scheme 
of nature, but of grace ; not in the evolution of 
of the creature, according to the irreverence of 
the schools, but of the Creator ; but yet, not in 
the evolution of the Creator in the sense of a 
growth of the Divine personality or attributes, 
but in the sense of a gracious process of Divine 
self-emerwnce to meet the needs of benis^hted 
humanity. 

THE ETERNAL PREVISION. 

The Divine wisdom, in developing the salva- 
tion which from the beginning centred in Christ 
(Eph. 1: 14; 1 Pet. 1: 19, 20), had an 
infinite chasm to span. But it was bridged 
from the Eternities by the Divine Love after an 
orderly plan, which is sketched in outline in 
the inspired record. 

The Word was — when ? "In the beginning." 
Was— where? "With God." Was— what? "Was 



Unity of the Divine Economy, 29 

God." And did — what? Created all things; 
and among them man unfallen — but man fell ! 
And then the Word became — what ? "Was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us." And m the Word 
was — what? ''In Him was Life." And the 
Life was — what ? ' ' The Light of men." And 
did — what ? ' ' Shineth in darkness . " And was 
received — how ? " The darkness comprehended 
it not." And so, at length, mankind was 
reached, but not of necessity illuminated. 

It is thus seen that Christ and man, who were 
predestined to meet in the at-one-ment plan of 
salvation, were, at the start, so to speak, 
infinitely separated. Christ, as the Word, had 
no point of surface-contact with mankind, 
which, in the mass, was but chaotic darkness, 
or utter carnal and wilful ignorance of God. 
The antithetical influence to dissipate darkness 
is not a voice, a word, a sound, but light. But, 
moreover, in this instance of darkness, light 
alone could not suflSice. There must be also life, 
since man's darkness is the darkness of dead- 
ness in trespasses and sins. Therefore the Life 
is first evolved from the Word, and then the 



30 Throne- Life, 

Light from the Life, that man may be trans- 
formed as well as enlightened ; won and 
swayed, as well as addressed and commanded. 
And so, with significance, the Incarnate "Word 
of Life" could say, "He that foUoweth Me 
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
light of life." And of Him it is said, " As 
many as received Him, to them gave He power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on His Name; which were born, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God." 

ADJUNCTIVE HUMAN TESTIMONY. 

Yet even with all this, the need of fallen 
humanity was not fully met, nor the Divine 
wisdom exhausted : therefore, we find here 
introduced an adjunctive agency in the scheme 
of grace. 

So dense and prevalent was the darkness and 
deadness, that not even the Divine eff*ulgence 
manifested through the God-Man — Himself the 
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express 
image of His person, in whom, incarnate, 



In Nature and Grace. 31 

dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily — 
was sufficient to awaken a receptivity of faith 
in man. The Heavenly Stranger " dw^elt among 
us "unnoted and unknown. ''He was in the 
world, and the world was made by Him, and 
the world knew Him not. He came unto His 
own, and His ov^n received Him not." And 
according to the limitations of His commission, 
to only as many as believed on His name, might 
He give the privilege to become the sons of 
God. In the Divine approach to meet man, 
therefore, a step nearer than even the Incarna- 
tion needed to be taken in order to incite a 
spiritual appetency in man. This step was 
taken in the adoption of inspired human testi- 
mony concerning the Light ; as to its necessity, 
its reality and power. 

''There was a man sent from God, whose 
name was John. The same came for a witness, 
to bear witness of the Light, that all 'men 
through him might believe. He was not that 
Light, but was sent to bear witness of that 
Light." 

This "man sent from God" was indwelt by 



32 Throne-Life. 

God, being full of the Holy Ghost, to testify of 
the God-Man. This " man sent from God," 
although not himself ''that Light," was ''a 
burning and shining lamp " (John 5 : 35, K.V.) , 
lit by that Light. And how intense was the 
radiance of his testimony, penetrating to the 
very core of the darkness and deadness around 
him, is seen in the proclamation with which 
he began, '' Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world ! " It was the 
doctrine of at-one-ment between God and man 
through the blood. And it was heard and 
heeded. For we read that two of John's dis- 
ciples heard him speak, and followed Jesus' 
invitation, "They came and saw where He 
dwelt, and abode with Him that day." Then, 
after one day alone with Jesus, they themselves 
went forth, alive and illuminated, to preach the 
"Word of Life" to others benighted, that they, 
too, might receive the " Light of Life." Hence- 
forth, it was after the same order that the wit- 
nessing flames spread everywhere ; testimony- 
about Jesus, as a means, leading up to testi- 
mony o/' Jesus, as an end. After the same rule 



Unity of the Divine Economy. 33 

the apostles preached : — " That which we have 
seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye 
also may have fellowship with us ; and truly 
our fellowship is with the Father, and with His 
Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). 

It is also to be noted that all the apostolic 
and primitive Church testimony was indebted 
for its success in penetrating and dissipating the 
darkness abounding, to its faithfulness in fol- 
lowing out the method of the Divine testimony, 
light through life, and life through the Word. 
And the rule then, must be the rule now — 
" Faith Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
Word of God." 

THE SECRET OF THE DARKNESS. 

Undissipated darkness still remains and 
abounds, in the face of continual testimony 
concerning the Word, Life, and Light, by the 
Spirit and the Church. In view of the density 
and extent of the darkness, it is appalling! 
And though prophecy foretokens the dawn of a 
perpetual day for the world, yet it also declares 
that the darkness shall previously thicken as 



34 Throne-Life. 

the dispensation closes. And even now the 
warning shadows of the predicted lawlessness 
are gathering about us ! The inquiry instinct- 
ively arises, And why all this? The Scripture 
replies, '' The whole world lieth in the evil 
one" (K.V). As the Prince of Life and Light 
is the source of the life and light, so the prince 
of death and darkness is the source of the death 
and darkness. And this princely deceiver, as 
'' the god of this world, hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the 
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of 
God, should shine unto them." And not only 
so, but this evil one and his angels, constituting 
'* the host of the rulers of the darkness of this 
world," wrestle against '' the children of light" 
who have been '' delivered from the power of 
darkness," and ''translated into the Kingdom 
of God's dear Son." Thus these fallen ones, in 
subtile and manifold ways, are in league to 
withstand our inroads on their kingdom of 
darkness, by the agency of the Word, life and 
light. And in this conflict, alas ! too often our 
faith is staggered, the promises obscured. 



In Nature and Grace, 35 

praj^er and effort paralyzed, and hope and com- 
fort vanish. And oh ! so continually the long- 
ing wells up from the depths of our wearied and 
baffled hearts, to know if there be not some 
vantage ground of experience against the prow- 
ess of the enemy possible to attainment. It 
will therefore be the endeavor in following chap- 
ters, to gather the testimony of Scripture as to 
such a possibility. 



CHAPTER II. 



WHAT IS THRONE-LIFE? 

rpHE phrase, " Throne-life," means, of course, 
life upon a throne ; and implies a position 
of advantage over enemies. We are to inquire, 
therefore, whether a Scriptural view authorizes 
the belief that such a victorious position is pro- 
vided for the Christian over his spiritual ene- 
mies. But the procedure of the argument will 
be gradual, and somewhat indirect, in order to 
profit. 

All of the salvation God has provided for 
mankind centres in Christ. And all of the sal- 
vation we realize in experience centres in our 
apprehension of Christ. 

Again : All of the historical development of 
provided salvation centres in the successive 
epochs of Christ's mission in our behalf; that 
is, in His incarnation, death, resurrection. 



What is Throne-Life? 37 

ascension, and second coming. And all of our 
spiritual development in realized salvation, in 
other words, all our " growth in grace,'' centres 
in our apprehension of the significance of these 
epochs, as securing to us the fulness of the 
salvation provided. 

Our Lord's incarnation bridged the chasm 
between the creation and the Creator, and 
between humanity and Divinity ; His death 
bridged the chasm between sin and holiness ; 
His resurrection bridged the chasm between 
death and life ; His exaltation to the Father's 
right hand bridged the chasm between the finite 
and the infinite ; and His coming again will 
bridge the chasm between Paradise lost and 
Paradise more than regained. 

While the remark concernino^ our OTowth in 
grace being dependent upon our apprehension 
of the significance of these epochs, is applicable, 
in a measure, to all of them, it especially 
applies to three of the epochs, viz. : our Lord's 
death, resurrection, and ascension. For it is 
along the line of these three events that the 
Holy Ghost, in response to our enlightened 



38 Throne-Life. 

faith, conveys to us a realization of communion 
with Christ as our substitute and security. 

As some of our readers may not at once see 
why the period of our Lord's earthly life, as the 
pattern life, is not to be included in this especial 
list of events which set forth His substitutionary 
work in our behalf, a slight pause in the direct 
line of thought may be made here, in order to 
offer a word, parenthetically, in explanation. 

Our Lord's incarnation and earthly life were, 
indeed, indispensable preliminaries to any avail- 
ing merit in His death, resurrection and ascen- 
sion on our behalf, but not until His Cross did 
His vicarious work, in strictness, begin. True, 
at His birth He was " made under the law," and 
became and henceforward continued to be, sub- 
ject to temptation, but all the while He was 
sinless in fact^ and not in any sense reckoned 
sinful for our sakes. Throughout all this period 
the Father could intently gaze upon Him with 
unvarying and unqualified approval and delight, 
and might frequently testify, ''This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
Through all His earthly sojourn our Lord " ful- 



What is Throne'Life? 39 

filled the law and made it honorable " by His 
conduct as well as precepts, and thereby suc- 
ceeded, as the sole exception to the race to 
which He was conformed in all points save sin, 
in deserving eternal life. But thus far, as 
unconnected with Calvary, it was His individual 
work, for which He could be rewarded only on 
His own behalf, as the God-Man. Any repre- 
sentative element attaching to His earthly career 
prior to, and apart from the Cross, is derived 
from the fact that His character was the only 
normal, ideal, and model human character 
ever exhibited, and not from a design of substi- 
tution in it. This ideal, perfect, and pattern 
character of the God-Man could not be divinely 
regarded as a substitute for the reverse charac- 
ter of mankind, until a way should be found for 
a judicial exchange of characters ; and prior to, 
and apart from the Cross and the Resurrection, 
no such way could be found. Not until His 
resurrection is Christ to be regarded, in the full 
Scripture sense, as ''the last Adam," ''the 
Lord from Heaven," a " quickening Spirit," the 
federal head of a new race, consistino- of all who. 



40 Throne-Life. 

through faith, are born of God, and become, as 
it were, ''alive from the dead." In all His 
earthly life, our Lord, though encompassed 
with vicissitudes, and "a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief," through the assaults of 
Satan and the malice of men, never once 
fathomed the depth of need belonging to our 
condemned human nature. It was not until He 
took, not simply our forfeited place of life 
through obedience, but our fallen place of death 
through disobedience, that He became indeed 
our Redeemer. For not until He was "made 
sin for us, who knew no sin," and was " deliv- 
ered for our offences," — not until the Father 
" laid on Him the iniquity of us all," and then, 
with averted face, "was pleased to bruise 
Him," and to " put Him to grief," constraining 
Him in His dying agony to cry, "My God! 
my God ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " — not 
until this culmination of wretchedness and 
woe tore out His heart-strings, and wrenched, 
for the occasion, the harmony between His 
humanity and Divinity, — not until then was it 
that our Lord reached down the ladder of 



What is Throne-Life? 41 

Divine condescension low enough for any con- 
sciousness of radical relief to awaken within us. 
But this being done, then faith might spring for- 
ward to press the lowest round with eager, 
trembling feet, and climb upward to fuller 
assurance and joy in the recognition of the fact, 
that He who died now lived again, that He who 
was ' ' delivered for our offences " had been 
'' raised again for our justification," and was 
now seated at the right hand of the Father as 
our ever-living Advocate ! 

It follows, therefore, that the exhibition of 
all our Lord wrought on earth in our behalf 
previously to His death, by His precepts, mira- 
cles and example, can enter as a saving element 
into our salvation only when accepted as the 
fruit of the Cross anticipated. It is solely on 
the ground of the death, resurrection, and 
ascension of Christ that the Scriptures base, 
emphasize and urge the free offer of salvation. 

But to resume the direct line of thought from 
which we have, for a stated purpose, digressed, 
let us observe how surely our ability to appre- 
hend the distinctive significance of our Lord's 



42 Throne-Life. 

death, resurrection and ascension — the three 
epochs which especially exhibit the complete- 
ness of His finished work — will determine the 
progress of our conscious spiritual experience. 

THE believer's APPREHENSION OF CHRIST'S 
DEATH. 

And first, as to the crucifixion of our Lord, 
both of two believers may apprehend that Christ 
bore our sins, and rejoice in a consciousness of 
pardon and peace. But besides, one of them, 
looking deeper, sees that Christ also bore our 
sinfuhiess, became on the cross the substitute 
for our corrupt nature, so that in His death our 
condemned " old man" was executed, and met 
his full deserts, and is now henceforth to be 
reckoned " dead indeed," and buried in the 
grave of Christ. Consequently, the joyful sense 
of release from bondage experienced by this 
believer will far exceed that which is experi- 
enced by the other. For, while both rejoice to 
see themselves freed from the condemnation of 
sin, one of them exults, in addition, to find 
himself freed from the dominion of sin. 



What IS Throne-Life? 43 

THE believer's* APPREHENSION OF CHRIST's 
RESURRECTION. 

Moreover, since the death and resurrection of 
Christ are complemental doctrines, the difter- 
ence in the comprehension of these believers 
concerning the power of the death of Christ, 
will, of necessity, lead to a corresponding 
difference in their apprehension of the power of 
His resurrection; and, as a final result, to a 
proportionate difference in their conscious spir- 
itual experience. 

As to Christ's resurrection, the first believer 
would have comparatively vague ideas of its 
special significance, as being equivalent to the 
Divine signature and seal attached to the fact 
of redemption fully secured (Rom. 1 : 4, 25). 
He might realize, indeed, and possibly with 
great clearness, that he had been born again, and 
was now united in love and faith, by the opera- 
tion of the Spirit of God, to his risen Lord ; but 
yet he would come far short of the fulness of 
assurance enjoyed by the other believer as to 
justification of life, and as to fellowship with 
the God-Man in resurrection experience ; for 



44 Throne-Life. 

the latter believer more clearly conceives of 
Christ as his substitute and continually accepted 
representative in resurrection. He sees not 
only that as Christ was once delivered for his 
oiFences, so now He is raised again for his jus- 
tification ; but he sees also that, as he himself 
was crucified and buried in the crucifixion and 
burial of Christ, as to his ''old man," ''this body 
of death," '*'sin-in-the-flesh," so now, likewise, 
he is risen again, on the occasion of his faith, 
and through the operation of the Spirit of God, 
as to his new self, the "new man," and is 
henceforth divinely identified with the resurrec- 
tion of Christ, as alive unto God from the dead 
evermore. 

Furthermore, this believer would be enabled, 
through the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
experienced in association with, and in con- 
firmation of this view of his resurrection 
with Christ, and strengthening him with might 
in the new, inner man, not only to live in the 
Spirit, but also to loalk in the Spirit (Gal, 5 : 
25), in a practical companionship with his risen 
Lord. So that, hereby, he would realize, in 



What is Throne-Life? 45 

daily experience the blessedness of being enabled 
to refrain from fulfilling " the lusts of the flesh" 
through an enduement of grace to bring forth 
'^the fruit of the Spirit" instead (Gal. 5 : 16, 
22, 23). He would find his glad consciousness 
confirming the Scripture, that ''against such 
[a life] there is no law" (Gal. 5 : 14), because 
such a life is "the fulfilling of the law (Matt. 22 : 
40), being the operation, loithin the believer^ of 
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and 
the fulfillment of its righteous requirement, in 
hisvjolk (Rom. 8: 2-4). Thus the aspect of 
law would be overgrown by that of loyalty, as 
that of a "laio of liberty''' (James 1 : 25) which 
emancipates the conscience in subduing it, re- 
moving all liability of condemnation under either 
extreme of license or legality (1 Cor. 9 : 21). 
Thenceforward, the experience of this believer 
would not be merely negative, but positive. 
There would be no longer a mere abstain- 
ino; and refraininof from this and that evil in- 
dulgence, after the binding force of a law of 
carnal commandments, crying monotonously, 
''Touch not, taste not, handle not." But there 



46 Throne-Life. 

would be inwardly recognized an exhaustless 
well-spring of holy, loving, and spontaneous 
loyalty, ceaselessly bubbling up, and out-flowing 
through all his thoughts, words and deeds, in 
an instinctive obedience that anticipated all legal 
enactments by fulfilling the sjgirit of the law in 
the heart of the letter. This believer would be 
an exponent of what it means to ''stand fast in 
the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,'^ 
and would thereby escape, the painful liability 
to which the other believer would be exposed, 
of becoming ''entangled again with the yoke of 
bondage" (Gal. 5:1), of falling from grace into 
legality once more (Gal. 5:4), of beginning in 
the Spirit only to end in the flesh (Gal. 3:3), 
and so, of going on groaning under the alter- 
nating and fitful sway of the flesh and spirit, or 
"old man" and "new man," as depicted in the 
seventh of Komans. 

But a still further degree of apprehension and 
experience concerning the death and resurrection 
of Christ may be realized by a third believer ; 
that is, as to the application and power of these 
complemental doctrines in the direction of our 



W/iat IS Throne-Life 9 47 

physical life and health. For the believer who, 
already recognizing his identification with the 
death and resurrection of Christ, still further 
conceives of Christ on the Cross as bearing away, 
after the manner of the ''scape-goat'' of old, the 
curse which involved our entire manhood ; body, 
as well as soul and spirit, will have a wider 
range of faith and joy. He will feel the prac- 
tical force of the Divine parallelism drawn 
between Matt. 8 : 16, 17, ''Himself took our in- 
firmities and bare our sicknesses" (as explained 
by Isaiah 53: 4), and 1 Peter 2 : 24, "Who 
His own self bare our sins in His own body on 
the tree" (as explained by Isaiah 53 : 5), and 
will consequently rejoice in the two-fold power 
of an atonement which covers alike the penalty 
of sickness and the guilt and power of sin. 

Then again, this believer will necessarily 
discern in the resurrection of Christ's physical 
body, not only the pledge and likeness of his 
own future glorified body, but also the privilege 
now made available to his faith, in view of his 
present identification with Christ's glorified body 
(Eph. 5: 30; 1 Cor. 6: 15-19), of realizino^ 



48 Throne-Life. 

in the midst of infirmity, or disease, or weari- 
some Christian service, a Divine renewal of his 
physical strength. He discovers, that through 
the agency of the Holy Spirit, already indwell- 
ing, the life of Christ may become operative 
not only in his ''inner man," but also in his 
''outer man," in the very "mortal flesh" of his 
"mortal body" (2 Cor. 4 : 10, 11), in that 
physical body which is said to be already "dead 
because of sin ; " that is, because on account of 
the fall, it is still under the curse of death, and 
not yet a revived and glorified body. This be- 
liever, thus realizing, rejoices on the needful 
occasion, in the conscious quickening of his 
physical life, as an earnest of his future glorified 
body, through the operation of the already 
indwelling Spirit of Him that raised up Christ 
from the dead (Rom. 8 : 10, 11). This believer 
will, accordingly, seethe practical significance of 
the Divine prescription in James 5 : 14-16, and 
consequently have frequent cause to sing, "Bless 
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His bene- 
fits ; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, w^ho heal- 
eth all thy diseases." 



What is Thro7ie-Life? 49 

THE believer's APPREHENSION OF CHRIST'S 
EXALTATION. 

Lastly, as to our Lord's ascension and exal- 
tation at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
the same law holds good, as to spiritual expe- 
rience being proportioned to apprehension. 
But since our Lord's present enthroned position 
is but the crowning stage of His resurrection 
life, the particularity with which the operation 
of this law has been already set forth as it per- 
tains to Christ's resurrection, will obviate the 
need of more than a word or two at this point, 
to show, in a general way, how it applies to His 
enthronement. A more detailed examination 
of the various rights and privileges accruing to 
Christian experience, from a clear conception of 
our Lord's present position, is reserved for suc- 
ceeding chapters. 

The believer who apprehends that Christ is 
now at the right hand of the Father on his 
behalf, will rejoice greatly, indeed ; but how will 
his joy exceed if he sees also that he himself is 
there, too, in Christ ! To recognize Christ as 
now our exalted and glorious Intercessor, our 



50 Throne-Life. 

all-availing and ever-prevailing Advocate, is 
cause for exultation, truly ; but to discover our- 
selves seated there in the heavenly places with 
Him, because in Him, His session there being 
divinely acknowledged as ours, the Head and 
all the members of the Bod}^ being in God's 
thought, and by our authorized faith, associated 
in triumphing over principalities and powers, 
this view of Christ's enthronement, must, of 
necessity, increase our joy. Moreover, it will 
furnish practical ground for finding, in the hour 
of temptation, not simply the way of escape 
always provided, whereby w^e may fly from the 
presence of the Tempter, but, besides, the way 
of active resistance^ whereby the Tempter flees 
from us^ and w^e come off* more than conquerors 
through Him that loved us ! 

On every such happy occasion, when the be- 
liever's enlightened faith successfully claims his 
associated position and privileges with Christ, 
there is an instance of what may be termed 
throne-experience. And when the believer's 
apprehension of his association with Christ in 
heavenly places becomes vivid and habitual, 



What is Throne-Life? 51 

and his experience grows correspondingly vic- 
torious, he has attained to what we mean by 
*' throne-life." And in the following chapters 
we shall consider the Scriptural warrant respect- 
ing such a life ; as to its need, possibility, priv- 
ilege and power. 

And now, dear reader, permit, as an ap- 
pended word to this chapter, a personal inquiry. 
How much of your provided salvation in Christ,, 
have you apprehended in Christ? Place the 
following texts together, like beads upon a 
string, and note their full reading in connection 
with what we have gone over : " Christ is all'" 
(Col. 3 : 11) ; " What think ye of Christ?' 
(Matt. 22 : 42) ; '^ As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he" (Prov. 23 : 7). The threaded 
texts, together, repeat the substance of the 
chapter we are now closing, as applied to you. 
Though, in fact, Christ is made of God to you the 
fulness of your salvation, yet do you conceive 
of Him, and lay hold of Him as such? If so, 
then you will find Him to be such in your 
experience, and realize His transforming power 
in your character and life. Christ is all; and 



52 Throne- Life, 

the vital question for you is, Do you receive 
Him as your all ? Is Christ all in your estimation 
and choice ? If so, He will become ' ' all " in you. 
Shall not this yearning heart-cry be now 
breathed by every reader: '' O God, by Thy 
Spirit through thy Word, make real in me, all 
that is true /or me, in Christ Jesus? " 



CHAPTEE III. 



THE NEED OF THEONE-LIFE. 

rpHE necessity of throne-life for the Christian 
has been already set forth in a general way 
in the previous chapters, but the subject calls for 
a more detailed examination. In the present 
chapter, therefore, it will be considered under 
two heads, viz ; the need felt, and the need 
analyzed. 

I. THE NEED FELT. 

Spiritual aspiration is a constituent element 
of true Christian life. If this is wanting, the 
life is, of necessity, in an abnormal condition. 
A multitude of Christians on every side are 
panting for more spiritual power. These 
yearning ones are to be found along all three 
of the representative lines of Christian service, 
namely, warfare, work and worship ; and be- 



54 Throne-Life, 

lievers who are farthest advanced in any or all 
of these directions experience the most intense 
desires. 

But this craving varies not only in inten- 
sity, but also in purity; that is, in its degree 
of freedom from selfishness, according to the 
believer's spiritual growth. Children in spirit- 
ual stature, although feeding on the ''sincere 
milk of the Word," and growing thereby, are 
yet peculiarly liable to become self-entertained 
through their abundance of joy and peace ; so 
that they crave spiritual knowledge and power, 
mainly, in order to possess and enjoy. They 
want everything in their religious experience to 
minister to jubilant frames and feelings. Their 
aim is happiness, the delight of their spiritual 
senses ; and they keep their eyes and ears open 
as so many possible inlets for joy. The burden 
of their testimony is to tell how happy they are. 
They are especially susceptible to impressions 
from the outward. Therefore, as is their life, 
so is their dan2:er. Satan's mis and snares for 
their feet are placed, for the greater part, on the 
outside, in the giddy, mazj^ world. He seeks 



The Need of Throne-Life, 55 

to induce them, through heedlessness, to sub- 
stitute the world for Christ as the source of 
happiness ; and as they waver and calculate 
through his suggestions, the conflict between 
their spiritual and physical senses grows sharper 
and more painful. And finally, if they remain 
loyal to their convictions, under the enlighten- 
ment of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, 
they struggle desperately at times for power to 
hold to the bent of their spiritual senses, and 
to turn from the counter bias of their physical 
senses. 

Again, those who have grown to youth in 
spiritual experience, though they have gained 
occasional nourishment from the ''strong meat" 
of doctrine, and thereby have learned to place 
little estimate on their frames and feelings, are 
yet more than ever concerned for themselves, 
and ^(;^Y/^ themselves. Their trouble now, 
more and more as they go on, is with the vary- 
ing condition of their will. They have ceased, 
in large measure, to indulge the desire to 
possess in order to enjoy. Their yearning now 
is, rather, to be and become. They wish for 



56 Throne-Life. 

character more than income. Their growing, 
aspiring aim is not directly for peace, but 
purity ; not for self-aggrandizement, but the 
Divine ao-o^randizement in them and throuo^h 
them. They have learned to heartily adopt as 
their life-motto the words of the Baptist, ''He 
must increase, but I must decrease." The con- 
flict now is not, as formerly, between the spir- 
itual and the worldly, or the inward and the 
purely outward ; but between the spiritual and 
the fleshly, the inward and the semi-outward. 
Their experience has loftier heights and deeper 
depths than of old, and the contest is more 
vivid and painful. Their chief dread is no 
longer the world, but themselves ; and as their 
self-introspection intensifies, they more and 
more realize the hopelessness of the struggle. 
They discover that the more stoutly they resist 
the flesh, the more persistently it cleaves to 
them. And as Satan is aware of the futility of 
the war of self with self, even though it be that 
of the new self with the old self, as illustrated 
in the seventh of Eomans, he aims to keep it 
going, and darkens the understanding as to the 



The Need of Throne-Life. 57 

feasibility, if not the possibility, of any other 
process of victory. 

There is yet a third class of the maturer 
ones, who though not all alike intelligently 
victorious, have all, at least, gotten at faith's 
essential secret of leisure from sense-strife and 
self-strife, and who are consequently seldom, 
if ever, vexed with questions of possession and 
position, but instead, are intensely stirred with 
the questions of service and self-sacrifice ; of 
enduring ^'unto all patience and long-suffering, 
with joyfulness." 

Life now, at its full tide, rises to an unmixed 
devotion and subservience to God and His 
Kingdom, to an unquestioning obedience to 
Divine orders as the business of life. And yet, 
with all this pure intent and unselfish endeavor, 
their experience does not prove wholly satis- 
factory as to accomplishment, if it does as to 
purpose, and so their faith almost faints at 
times. 

Possibly, in view of the last remark, some 
of our readers who readily recognize the truth- 
fulness of the first two pictures of Christian 



58 Throne-Life. 

experience, will deny the correctness of the 
third, inasmuch as it associates the idea of so 
much defeat with so much victory. But we 
feel assured that there are not a few with con- 
secrated wills, who keep their eye single to the 
glory of God, and know of the joy of the Lord 
as their strength, in an exalted measure, and are 
full of love and good works, who will acknowl- 
edge the faithfulness of the last picture drawn. 
For they know, that while they have attained 
to a restfulness of power over the blandishments 
of the world and the deceitfulness of the flesh, 
they have not found the secret of a propor- 
tionate restfulness of power for endurance and 
achievement in Christian service ; and because 
of the conscious lack of enough of such power, 
they have often fainted under the burden and 
heat of the day. They have seen that as the 
way of service has widened under providential 
direction, and greater labor has been appointed, 
they have failed in the requisite skill. They 
miss of success when it is just at hand, and of 
victory when it crosses the threshold. They 
seem to themselves to have lost the value of 



The Need of Throne-Life. 59 

the gifts they consciously possess, in that the 
gift of using gifts appears to desert them when 
most essential to offset the subtilty of the 
enemy. And yet they fully believe, and often 
with rejoicing realize, that He that is in them is 
greater than he that is in the world. But while 
this is, in the main, ever consciously true with 
them, as to the matter of unbroken communion 
with God, yet, on attempts to enter or pursue 
the providential openings for service, they often 
become terrified and disheartened at the for- 
midableness of the hindrances. The power, 
therefore, for which they now thirst, is not for 
world-conquest, or self-conquest, as commonly 
understood, but for successful endurance and 
achievement in the face of Satan's endeavors to 
defeat God's glory through them. Withal, 
they catch occasional glimpses of the blessed 
possibility of such an attainment in the Scrip- 
tures, but they fail to discern any method of 
attainment. They are haunted, in the midst of 
their darkness, with the conviction that the 
stars are out above all their clouds. They hold 
telescopes of promise strong enough to espy 



60 Throne- Life, 

their glimmer through the providential cloud- 
rifts, but they search in vain for any Jacob's 
ladder by which to scale the clouds in order to 
abide with the stars. 

II. THE NEED ANALYZED. 

As the nature of man is tripartite, body, soul, 
and spirit (1 Thess. 5 : 23), so, accordingly, is 
he accessible to the assaults of the Tempter in 
these three directions. And the corresponding 
outcome of these assaults, in the ascending 
grade of their God-defying enormity, is desig- 
nated in the Scriptures as, '*the lust of the 
flesh," ''the lust of the eyes," and ''the pride 
of life" (1 John 2 : 16). Moreover, it is evi- 
dent that Satan has, from the beginning, invari- 
ably attempted to mar God's image in man after 
this order of ascent. To observe this, we have 
only to compare the three generic temptations 
which befell the first Adam, with the three 
which befell the last Adam ; and again, the 
three typical stages of temptation to which the 
literal Israel was exposed, with the three anti- 
typical stages through which the spiritual Israel 
has been called to pass. 



The Need of Throne-Life. 61 

THE FIRST COMPARISON THE TWO ADAMS. 

On placing Gen. 3 : 1-6, beside Luke 4 : 3-12, 
we find that our first parents and our Lord were 
alike tested ; first, as to the body, then the soul, 
and finally the spirit. It is true that, in both 
cases, each variety of temptation was presented 
through the physical senses. But this method of 
Satanic approach would seem to have been the 
only one open to any possible success, since 
neither Adam nor our Lord had any natural bias 
towards depravity. Satan's process of dealing 
with Adam's fallen children, in his appeals to 
the soul and spirit at least, is not always so 
circuitous. But let us trace the comparison in 
hand. 

1. The similar appeals to the body, the seat 
of appetite. 

Genesis : ' ' When the woman saw that the 
tree was good for food." 

LuJce: ''And the devil said unto him, If 
thou be the Son of God, command this stone 
that it be made bread." 

As our Lord, since He had just been anointed 



62 Throne-Life, 

Avith the Spirit of power, was, of course, as con- 
scious He could turn the stone into bread as 
Eve was aware she could pluck the fruit, there- 
fore, the suggestion made to Him that He should 
release himself from the helpless position of 
providential dependence which, as the repre- 
sentative Man, He had assumed, in order to 
gratify an innocent craving of the body, was as 
real a temptation to Him as the suggestion made 
to Eve was to her. 

2. The similar appeals to the soul, the seat 
of self-consciousness ; an element which is 
susceptible of an over-growth in the direc- 
tions of covetousness, self-aggrandizement and 
ambition. 

Genesis : ' ' The woman saw that it was pleas- 
ant [margin, ' a desire'] to the eyes." 

Luke: ''And the devil, taking him up into 
a mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms 
of the world in a moment of time, and said. 
All these things will I give thee." 

But wherein the woman yielded, our blessed 
Lord withstood. He would not swerve from 
His purpose not to receive the Kingdom apart 



The Need of Throne-Life. 63 

from the Cross, nor to accept from the proud 
usurper that worldly sovereignty as a gift, 
which needed to be wrested from his grasp in 
order to our redemption. 

3. The similar appeals to the human spirit; 
the seat of conscience in all, and of God-con- 
sciousness in the unfallen and in the redeemed ; 
but which is, nevertheless, a department of our 
being that is liable to be intruded upon, and 
overshadowed by an audacious intellectual pride, 
born of those masterful elemental soul-powers, 
the Reason and the Will. 

Genesis : ' ' And the serpent said unto the 
Avoman. . . God doth know that in the day 
ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, 
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 
And when the woman saw. . . that it was a 
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of 
the fruit thereof." 

Luke : ' ' And he [the devil] brought him to 
Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the 
temple, and said unto him. If thou be the Son 
of God, cast thyself down, for it is written. He 
shall give His angels charge over thee." 



64 Throne-Life. 

But again, wherein our first parents fell, our 
Lord prevailed. He would not, through over- 
weening pride, presume to do, as a man, in the 
sioiit of men, a God-like deed for its own sake. 

THE SECOXD COMPARISON THE TWO ISRAELS. 

Let us now turn to the other comparison ; 
that between the literal Israel and the spiritual 
Israel, or the Church, whether viewed as an 
organic whole, or as to its individual believers ; 
and we shall be able to discern in the three 
corresponding stages of their career, tempta- 
tions analogous to those which assail the body, 
soul and spirit. 

1. The first typical stage of temptation is 
found in the abode of the children of Israel in 
Egypt. It was an experience of a compara- 
tively gross order of enjoyments and sufferings. 
They indulged the lusts of the flesh, and under- 
went perils of the flesh. Their appetites relished 
the flesh-pots, melons, cucumbers, leeks and 
garlic ; while their hands wearied, and their 
backs smarted under the lash of Pharaoh's 
task-masters. Though they found, while they 



The Need of Throne-Life, 65 

were still in Egypt, assured escape from Egyp- 
tian doom, under the blood of the Passover, j^et 
they knew not, till later, the further need of 
escape from Egyptian fellowship, under the 
guidance of the cloudy pillar, and through the 
depths of the sea. It was essentially but an 
initial, and, so to speak, an outward and 
physical stage. 

The corresponding anti-typical stage with 
spiritual Israel, or the Church, is to be traced, 
as it pertains to the historical Church, through 
the first three centuries of the Christian era. 
During this period the Church luxuriated in 
the exuberance of apostolic gifts and graces, 
but at the same time had to labor for her very 
life, in the midst of paganism, and under the 
burden of semi-pagan philosophies and heresies, 
while at times she well-nigh fainted under the 
scourge of the persecuting emperors. 

The same anti-typical stage, as it applies to 
the individual Christian, has been portrayed in 
the sketch of spiritual childhood attempted in 
the beginning of this chapter. And the reader 
will observe that the conflict of experience, there 



66 Throne-Life. 

set forth, is mainly of an outward and worldly 
nature. For while there is knowledge ot 
personal salvation, and abundant delight in 
spiritual things, there is also danger and suffer- 
ing from worldly influences. Though in the 
world, yet, because the believer is not of the 
world, he is hated hy the world. And, under 
this supremacy of hatred, he cowers and flinches, 
until he turns his back upon the world, in 
decisive separation from it. 

2. The second typical stage of temptation is 
connected with the wandering of the children of 
Israel in the wilderness. Though they were 
no longer in Egypt, Egypt was evidently still 
in them. Freed from Egypt, they at once fell 
in love with Egypt. Escaped from bondage 
to Pharaoh, they willingly entered into bondage 
to the likeness of Pharaoh in themselves, and 
went on groaning under the self-imposed domin- 
ion of self. Everything became Egyptianized, 
even their ostensible worship of Jehovah. They 
sighed for the olden flesh-pots, the melons, 
cucumbers, leeks and garlic, and loathed the 
manna. In the name of the God that brought 



The Need of Throne-Life. 67 

them out of Egypt — and thereby they intended 
Jehovah — they fell down before the golden 
calf; and then, after the manner of the idolaters 
of Egypt, celebrated a so-called ''feast to the 
Lord." We read that '' the people sat down to 
eat and drink, and rose up to play," dancing 
before their idol. And so they went on, 
promising and failing, murmuring and repent- 
ing ; and all this under the protests of a right- 
eous law, and the acknowledged presence of 
Jehovah ! So to speak, they were orthodox in 
creed and seatiment, but faulty in practice. 
They knew much of the letter of the law, but 
little of its spirit. It was the war of desires 
intermino-lino; with the fickleness of the will, 
under the alternating sway of flesh and spirit. 
It was the soul-stage of temptation, and of 
fruitfulness in '' the lust of the eyes," that is, 
in soulish desires. 

The corresponding anti-typical stage, as it 
pertains to the Church at large, is to be 
found in Church annals, from the time of Con- 
stantine, at the beginning of the fourth century, 
to the Reformation, which beo'an under Luther. 



68 Throne-Life. 

For the Church, on the accession of a Christian 
emperor, being delivered from persecution, and 
no longer feeling compelled to shun paganism, 
immediately turned about, and became so infatu- 
ated with its luring features as to incorporate its 
semblance into her own system of worship and 
polity. Against the most solemn protests of 
her better conscience, voiced by the more wary 
and spiritual, the Church began coquetting with 
paganism ; at first countenancing, and then 
adopting its ceremonialism and hierarchial 
orders, barely changing the names ; and ere 
long, having fully arrayed herself in the nuptial 
robes of a spectacular Christianity, she con- 
sented to become virtually wedded to paganism. 
And it were needless to show how the trans- 
formation culminated, and how the type was 
completely fulfilled in the long wandering of the 
Church through the waste-howling wilderness 
of the dark ages. 

The same anti-typical stage, as it applies to 
the individual Christian, has been sketched 
in the outline already given of spiritual youth. 
It is the period of conflict between desiring to 



The Need of Throne-Life. 69 

be and become what one knows he ought to be 
and become, and failing to so be and become. 
It is the time of our vexatious schooldays, under 
that Sinaitic schoolmaster, the Law ; the season 
of our passage through that transitional wilder- 
ness, the seventh of Romans, that intervenes 
between our Egyptian experience of worldly 
association, and our entrance, by faith, into a 
conscious association with Christ Jesus in the 
heavenly places ; a wilderness that, perhaps, 
becomes cross-barred with the tracks of our 
fruitless journeyings, and thickly dotted with 
the encampments of Resolution and Repentance ! 
It would seem that this stage is essential to 
the possession of a profound self-knowledge ; 
and that every Christian is, in some measure, a 
partaker of it ; but that it is divinely permitted 
as only transitional , and need be but brief. So 
Providence wills it; even, as in the type, the 
children of Israel, after bu.t a short tutoring 
under the law, and only a slight acquaintance 
with the perils of the wilderness, came to the 
borders of the promised land. But just as tliey 
could not enter in because of unbelief, so now, 



70 Throne-Life, 

many a consciously flesh-burdened disciple, at 
the very Heaven-appointed hour for entrance 
upon the soul-rest that remaineth to him here, 
seems to come short of it through unl)elief. And, 
perchance, after he once turns back, like them to 
wander to and fro again, his aimless journey 
continues until his carcass falls in the wilderness, 
so that he never realizes, until his dying hour, 
what a possible blessedness he has missed ! 
But, blessed be God ! all Christians are not 
thus recreant. There are some who, like Caleb 
and Joshua, remain faithful, undismayed by 
reports which falsify the promises ; and who, 
having eaten for themselves of the grapes of 
Eschol, never thereafter are satisfied till they 
obtain a possession in the goodly land ! 

3. The third and final typical stage of temp- 
tation, answering to the conflict of the human 
spirit, and the outcome of wliich, in the case of 
failure, is ''the pride of life," is connected with 
the abode of the Israelites in the promised land. 
Though at first they were reverential, obedient, 
united and victorious, the process of degeneracy 
in time set in; and thereupon, disobedience. 



The Need of Throne- Life. 71 

idolatry, sectionalism and servitude became the 
prominent features. The Canaanites, whom thej^ 
had been commanded to exterminate, proved, 
through their own sluggishness, too much for 
them, and ^'would dwell in the land " ! Moreover, 
these nations overcame them morally, securing 
alliances, social and political, whereby they 
openly supplanted the worship of Jehovah with 
the various forms of Canaanitish idolatry. The 
early trend towards indi^ddualism culminated in 
the days of the Judges, when we read, that 
' ' every man did that which was right in his own 
eyes." And, though this process of national 
disintegration was stayed in the reigns of Saul, 
David, and Solomon, it broke out again more 
signally than ever, immediately afterwards, and 
rent the nation in twain. Finally, the moral 
and political decay exceeded the power of any 
other Divine remedy than that of total deporta- 
tion and captivity beyond the Euphrates. That 
is to say, the forewarning of Moses, in Lev. 
18: 28, was fulfilled; the land spued out the 
Israelites, as it had the nations before them, for 
the same abominations. 



72 Throne-Life. 

The corresponding anti-typical stage of the 
spiritual Israel, viewed as a whole, is to be 
witnessed in the history of the Protestant 
Church. This Church, coming up out of the 
Papal wilderness of the dark ages, and crossing 
the Jordan of separation, in the proclamation 
of the doctrine of justification by faith, entered, 
with hope and rejoicing, into the promised land 
of the Reformation. What a relief from asceti- 
cism, what a rebound from ritualism, and what 
a revival of primitive piety and simplicity there 
seemed about to be ; but how many disappoint- 
ing features soon intermingled with the pros- 
pect ! The reforming leaders themselves stood 
apart from one another, in zealous, if not jealous, 
suspicion. And thus, individualism and section- 
alism, working in a '' mystery of iniquity " from 
the beginning, developed into bigoted secta- 
rianism, and finally resulted in a widespread 
apostacy of formality, lifeless orthodoxy and 
statecraft. Church-and-Stateism reappeared, 
somewhat after the old middle age pattern, only 
with perhaps a few shades less of unified bigotry. 
And what is^now the picture ? Philadelphianism 



The Need of Throne-Life. 73 

intensifying, but contracting ; Laodiceanism 
intensifying and expanding ! How emphatic 
the Laodicean soliloquy of the Church now-a- 
days : *'I am rich, and increased with goods, 
and have need of nothing ! " The Church's 
enchantment of self-complacency is well nigh 
without bounds, in the direction of architecture, 
music, culture, social position, benevolence, 
missions, boards, organizations and system- 
atized agencies, and the eclat of statistics. But 
the Church guesses not in how much of all 
this, and in what other directions, she may be 
judged to be '' wretched, and miserable, and 
poor, and blind, and naked " in a spiritual sense, 
and has but little apprehension of her need to 
buy ''eye-salve" that she may ''see"! Her 
vain-glorying is especially evidenced in the 
features of Ritualism and Rationalism. For 
while, on the outside, a childish, empty, re- 
vamped pageantry substitutes itself for worship 
in spirit and in truth, on the other, so-called 
advanced theology, new departures, destruc- 
tive biblical criticism, evolutionary theories, 
and what-nots, almost annihilate any vestige of 



74 Throne-Life. 

primitive simplicity and spirituality. Then, 
yonder in the background, that is, within 
Christendom, though outside of the Church, 
there comes along, at the very heels of the last 
named host, a motley, presumptuous, heaven- 
provoking brotherhood of Materialism, Agnos- 
ticism, Esoteric Buddhism, Spiritism, and other 
clans, pledged to defy humanity ! While, withal, 
in the ominous thunder-peals of Communism, 
Nihilism and Anarchy, ever waxing nearer and 
louder, the wisely observant detect the herald- 
ing trumpet-notes of the spiritual ''Assyrian,'' 
the predicted personal Antichrist, who shall 
carry away the nominal body of spiritual Israel, 
the lukewarm Laodicean Church, which the 
Lord is constrained to spue out of His mouth, 
into the unparalleled captivity of ''The Great 
Tribulation"! 

The corresponding final anti-typical stage, as 
it pertains to the individual believer, has been 
in a measure set forth in the description of 
spiritual maturity, and answers to the Christ- 
ian's consciousness of his position in the 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, where there 



The Need of Throne-Life, 75 

are both the highest privileges to enjoy and the 
deadliest perils to encounter. For, when this 
promised land of experience has been once 
entered upon by those who have attained to 
faith-rest from fleshly conflict and control, so that 
they are comparatively at leisure from them- 
selves, and absorbed with a single desire to do 
and endure for Christ, then there comes an 
altogether new and vivid consciousness of the 
power of God to endue and sustain on the one 
hand, and, on the other, of the reality of the 
warfare to be waged. For now they realize, 
as never before, how they are pitted, face to 
face, against principalities and powers ; ''against 
the world-rulers of this darkness, against the 
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly 
places" (R. V.) ; against the spiritual Canaan- 
ites who have forfeited their first estate, and 
must now be despoiled of their habitations and 
worldly supremacy. It is then the believer 
finds, that though in fee simple, the whole realm 
of heavenly experience, in communion with 
Christ, is his from the first, yet that the law of 
enjoyment is according to advancement. In 



76 Throne-Life. 

the fullest sense of possession, only every place 
upon which the sole of his foot rests is his. 
And, alas ! too often, as we have seen in the 
description of spiritual maturity, these Canaan- 
itish reprobates, through their subtilty and 
prowess, seduce or drive the disciple from his 
steadfastness ; putting to rout his sturdiest 
endeavors to proceed, and pitiably shaming his 
attempts, in the name of his great Captain, to 
lead captivity captive, to spoil principalities 
and powers, and make a show of them openly. 
The adventuring believer, now, for the first 
time, fully estimates the difference between 
escaping from Satan's power, and overcoming 
his power. He learns, that while we may with 
comparative ease fly from the territory of 
Egyptian fellowship, — the scene of open and 
apparent worldly assault, where we do not 
belong, and have no right to remain, — and 
while we may with comparative speed reach 
the end of our pilgrimage through the Sinaitic 
experience, — where the assaults are more in- 
ward, mystifying and galling, — yet that it is 
altogether another matter to undertake aggres- 



The Need of Throne-Life. 11 

sive warfare against Satan, and invade his 
highest chosen dominions of worldly su- 
premacy, where we have all right, blood-bought 
rio-ht, heaven-commissioned riofht, to be and 
abide, but where the tactics of the enemy, thus 
suddenly thrown back upon the defensive, and 
met face to face, are wholly unknown ! AYhat 
greater provocation could Satan and his host 
receive, to put forth their greatest strength, 
and to test their wisest cunnino- ao;ainst the 
venturesome believer ? 

Ah ! Satan is well aware, that if the believer 
be now allowed to retain the full and harmo- 
nious use of all his consecrated powers, indwelt 
by his single-eyed purpose to glorify God, then 
he and his will be worsted, driven, and dispos- 
sessed. Hence, he now lends all his energies, 
and concentrates all his wisdom, in cunning 
w^ays to distract the thoughts of the believer, 
and, so to say, to individualize and sectionalize 
his interests and affections. For by such means 
he hopes to secure for himself occasions for 
expedient compromises and partial toleration, 
and, if possible, for alliance and affiliation. By 



78 Throne-Life. 

thus entrenching himself, he obtains a vantage- 
ground for bolder exploits, the success of which 
will deprive the believer of heavenly commun- 
ion, and expose him to the Divine chastisement. 
But Satan also knows, that, to facilitate his 
schemes, he can no longer deal with this 
believer as with a novice, and win his heart by 
holding up some tinseled worldly bauble, nor 
yet secure his will by openly stirring up anew 
the allayed war of self with self, in his willing 
and not willing to sin. The Adversary is mind- 
ful that then he would be at once recognized 
and repulsed, by having the shield of faith 
thrust in his face by one whose purpose is fixed 
to side with God, and whose spiritual senses 
have become exercised to discern between good 
and evil when placed side by side. Satan aims, 
therefore, more than ever, to mask himself, and 
cover his steps, obliterating every print of the 
cloven foot ; if, haply, the disciple may be 
led to forget, or even doubt, the possibility of 
his presence. Satan endeavors now to reach 
the will through the conscience, and the con-, 
science through the reason, and the reason 



The Need of Throne-Life. 79 

through the presentation of partial knowledge 
and semi-truthful suggestions. Conscience, 
now awake and alert, must be tricked into ren- 
dering erroneous decisions upon questions of 
right and wrong, by being misinformed con- 
cerning the preliminary question of what is true 
or false in the given cases. The heart must be 
brought to harbor sin by the head's entertaining 
error. Satan dares not attempt to carry either 
head or heart by storm. He is aware he needs 
to be very adroit in order to succeed. He 
makes many a circuitous journey through the 
realms of the believer's imagination ; coming 
roundabout to the heart by way of the head, 
and roundabout to the head by way of the 
heart. Therefore, temptations now appear in 
the lustre of angels of light, sheeny with 
apparent wisdom and purity ; and assuming 
a Scriptural garb, and mien, and phraseology. 
And herein, the pattern of the severest temp- 
tation presented to our Lord is faitlifully fol- 
lowed. For it is notable, that the only one of 
the three temptations he encountered in the 
wilderness which was weighted with the sanctity 



80 Throne-Life. 

of Scripture, was the temptation that assailed 
His human spirit. In that supreme assault, the 
Tempter ventured to thrust at the Son of God 
with the two-edged sword of the Holy Ghost, 
the pain of which he himself so well knew, say- 
ing, ^' It is written " ! 

Accordingly now, in the case of the believer, 
there occurs, on Satan's part, a great parade of 
pseudo-spirituality, in the line of mimic virtue, 
justice, and gentleness, intermingled with much 
fair reasoning. Eeason and conscience are to 
be cajoled and outwitted by a maze of sophisti- 
cal, fine-spun distinctions. Casuistical sugges- 
tions, as to what is expedient as well as lawful, 
are introduced with perplexing frequency. 
Hence, Satan's chosen province for dealing with 
the believer in theheavenlies, is not the deprav- 
ity of the flesh, but, by way of annoyance, any 
natural infirmity, incapacity or limitation, 
hereditary peculiarity or proclivity, such as 
may be morally indiff*erent until abnormally 
intensified and misdirected by the wiles of the 
Adversary. Thus, occasions for Satanic assault 
are found in the believer's predispositicm to be 



The Need of Throne-Life. 81 

politic, curious, hopeful, benevolent, or inde- 
pendent. By allying himself with the action 
of any of these characteristics, the Tempter 
often stimulates the believer into an outbreak 
of over-weening conceit and pride, which results 
in a fall. Or, again, in the proneness of the 
believer to caution, pains-taking, despondency, 
self-depreciation, or conscientiousness, the Ad- 
versary finds opportunity to weight the believer 
with such a morbid and crushing sense of his 
own insignificance and inability, that the nerves 
of faith become paralyzed for any defence 
against the intrusion of that most subtle of all 
phases of pride — almost the only kind that is 
unsuspectingly welcomed in the cloister of 
devotion — the sanctimonious grace-pride of 
humility I Or, finally, if the believer is, by 
nature, over-credulous and superstitious, then 
he may possibly be duped into fanaticism. 

But the Adversary has other arts, held in 
reserve, to secure souls more circumspect; 
whereby he daunts their fervor of devotion, and 
hushes their aspirations in prayer ; for prayer 
in the heavenlies he especially dreads. For 



82 Throiie'Life. 

there, the atmosphere of prayer enveloping 
the suppliant, is not simply the delight of com- 
munion, or the joy of attainment, but oftener it 
is the prevalence of intercession, a mountain- 
top atmosphere, like that in-breathed by Moses, 
when he pleaded successfully for the rebellious 
Israelites, or like that which sustained our Lord 
while He waited on the Father till the fourth 
watch of the night, ere He descended and 
walked out upon the sea to save his storm-tossed 
disciples. Hence, where Satan cannot other- 
wise defeat prevailing prayer in the heavenlies, 
he often succeeds in extracting its core of pur- 
pose and faith by adopting and simulating the 
prayer. For he willingly permits the importu- 
nity that lacks definiteness and confidence. 
Therefore, he endeavors to confuse and sup- 
plant the thoughts of the suppliant by substi- 
tuting his own ; and often so adroitly, and with 
such a show of sanctity, as to succeed in urging 
on the soul to pray into the void of Satanic sug- 
gestions, until at length the wings of desire, 
beating aimlessly about, droop in flight from 
sheer exhaustion. 



The Need of Throne-Life. 83 

Within the possible range of such hellish arts, 
IS to be found an explanation for much other- 
wise unaccountable failure in the various direc- 
tions of Christian service. Among instances 
in point, may be noted the plucking of much 
unripe fruit in evangelistic labor, the dwarfed 
purposes of charity, the conflicting counsels of 
equally zealous Christians, and the fatal defeats 
in the hours of united prayer. 

Although the devices of the enemy are mul- 
titudinous, and beyond the wisdom of any 
human analysis, they have been, in a measure, 
classified for our profitable study by the pen of 
inspiration. For, if we turn again to the typi- 
cal outline of the believer's experience in heav- 
enly places as given in the book of Joshua, we 
may discover at least three of the prominent 
methods employed by Satan to entrap the 
believer. And these three may be aptly entitled, 
the snare of success, the snare of suspense, and 
the snare of satisfaction. The outcome of any 
of the three, on an occasion of Satan's success, 
is ^' the pride of life "; but the consequences 
are climacteric in the order named. The sue- 



84 Throne-Life. 

cess of the first snare results in the temporary 
defeat of the believer ; the success of the second 
leads him to compromise and enter into an 
alliance with the enemy ; while the success of 
the third eventuates in his being overcome, and 
even acquiescing in the defeat ; and, possibly, 
in the final captivity of his faith, and his forfeit- 
ure of the reward due to the overcomer. Let 
us now turn to the record, and trace these 
methods as enumerated. 

1. THE SNAKE OF SUCCESS. 

The illustration of this is found in the discom- 
fiture of the Israelites at Ai, as narrated in the 
seventh and eighth chapters of Joshua. But we 
need to go back to the previous account of the 
conquest of Jericho, in order to discover how 
this snare W2i^ prepared. And we shall find that 
the secret of its contrivance lay in the cunning 
of Satan, in his efforts to defeat the Israelites by 
allying himself with them ; or in other words, in 
"Uis attempts to frustrate the Divine purpose, by 
adopting the Divine plan. 

The Canaanites were, in every way, people 



The Need of Throne-Life. 85 

after Satan's own heart. He had so thoroughly 
debased them that they slavishly worshipped him 
and his demons, through their idols. He was, 
therefore , no doubt exceedingly loath to have them 
disposessed of their habitations by the incoming 
of God's chosen people. But well aware that, in 
the Divine purpose, the hour was now come for 
the land to spue out its inhabitants, and no power 
of his might prevent, he came to the desperate 
resolve to shift his base of operations, by him- 
self, as it were, going over to the aid of the 
invading host ; in order, thereby, to involve 
them in some transgression, and thus separate 
them from the Divine favor, and lessen, if pos- 
sible, the full tide of succeeding victories. 
Therefore, Satan, with this traitorous intent, 
entered into Achan, as into Judas long after- 
wards ; and, in the person of Achan, enlisted as 
a soldier in the army of Israel, and marched as 
devoutly and solemnly as the rest around the 
walls of Jericho ! But no sooner had the city 
been taken, and the slaughter commenced, all of 
which he had no power to hinder, than his cun- 
ning is seen in tempting Achan to take of ''the 



86 Throne-Life. 

accursed stuff," and to conceal the Babylonish 
garment, the two hundred shekels of silver, and 
the wedge of gold, and thereby to myolve the 
whole nation in the corporate defilement, and in 
the consequent judgement which befell them at 
Ai. Thus was the snare of success prepared, 
and we know how easily they became entangled 
in it. 

Flushed with the marvelous display of Divine 
power in their behalf, in the overthrow of Jeri- 
cho, they presumed on its continued and uncon- 
ditional display. Neglecting to seek for specific 
Divine wisdom to meet the new occasion, and 
interlarding their faith with self-confidence, 
they rushed on heedlessly to their defeat. But 
if their discomfiture was signal, so was the 
Divine reparation. For when they had inquired 
of the Lord, and, at the Divine bidding, had 
instituted a searching self-examination, and had 
put away their sin of ignorance as soon as dis- 
covered, acquiescing in the Divine judgment 
against it, at once they were again victorious. 

Withal, they seem to have derived from their 
painful experience one lesson, which stood them 



The Need of Throne-Life. 87 

in good stead in all their following campaigns, 
and one which we ourselves, as spiritual Israel- 
ites at war with the spiritual Canaanites, would 
do well to heed. That lesson is this : that, 
while the Divine purpose is invariably the same 
in overcoming evil, the Divine tactics change in 
the fight of faith. The impressive gathering of 
the nation at Ebal and Gerizim, immediately 
after the fall of Ai, in order to become re-ac- 
quainted with the possible blessings and chas- 
tisements which hedge, on either side, the path- 
way of obedience, shows how thoroughly they 
had become convinced that power belongs only 
to God, and that its display in their behalf 
would be conditioned on their faithfulness. 

The further application of this story to us is 
plain. In many an instance, soon after the 
believer's conscious entrance upon his heavenly 
privileges in Christ, Satan succeeds in entrap- 
ping him, through the experience of some signal 
victory, in such a way that he falls into the sins 
of presumption and heedlessness. Sorrowfully 
he learns, that any reliance on former experiences 
as sources of power and security is fatal to 



88 Throne-Life. 

future success : and that even if such reliance be 
wholly unintentional, and be even unconsciously 
exercised, yet, that it cannot fail to incur 
disaster. For while the glamour of recent victory 
enchants the memory and imagination, the 
enemy's resources of desperation are under- 
estimated ; so that the believer, though going 
forth to battle anew in the name of his God, 
unwittingly trusts in some degree to self-leader- 
ship. And, in the midst of the overwhelming 
defeat, shame, and astonishment which follow, 
he is compelled to listen to the taunt of the foe, 
''Where is thy God ? " But the lesson heeded, 
and self-examination instituted, the believer 
learns with fresh gratitude, that if indeed judg- 
ment belongs to God, so also does mercy ; and 
in joyful meekness he exclaims, ''There is for- 
giveness with Thee, that Thou may est be feared !" 
But at every stage, w^e need to be watchful 
against a tried foe, who forecasts his devices to 
affiliate with the good which he cannot defeat, 
and thus to secretly pervert it. 



The Need of Throne-Life, 89 

2. THE SNARE OF ^SUSPENSE. 

This is typically exhibited in the league 
which the inhabitants of Gibeon effected with 
Israel, by means of deceit. Like the other 
Canaanites, the Gibeonites were terror-stricken 
at the progress of the invaders. But, unlike 
the rest, they were hopeless of any escape from 
slaughter through a recourse to arms. They 
determined, therefore, to resort to policy and 
dissimulation as a means of self-preservation, 
and thereby succeeded in securing an alliance 
with the Israelites, and also their protection 
against the indignation and wrath of the other 
Canaanites. The details of the story are famil- 
iar, as told in the ninth chapter of Joshua. The 
ambassadors from Gibeon appeared one day 
before Joshua and his warriors in disguise, 
arrayed in tattered garments and clouted shoes, 
and carrying old leathern wine-bottles, rent and 
bound up, and loaves of bread, dry and mouldy ; 
all under the pretence that they had come on a 
long journey, from far beyond the borders of 
Canaan. They assumed to be representatives 



90 Throne-Life. 

of a people who had heard by rumor of the 
conquests of the Israelites, and who therefore 
wished to enter into a treaty with them. We 
know how the children of Israel were beguiled 
by appearances, and how, in the midst of their 
suspense and doubt, they consulted and reasoned 
among themselves, but failed to carry the 
dilemma to God for settlement, and, as a con- 
sequence, were led into the binding and fatal 
act of partaking of the old victuals, as a seal of 
friendly alliance. 

All this is a pitiable commentary on the 
weakness of wisdom frequently shown by saints 
now a-days, when at close quarters with Satan. 
There is no lack of courage, it may be, or of 
loyalty ; but only a sad lack of spiritual dis- 
cernment. And the failure in this particular is 
not because enough wisdom is not possible or 
available, but simply because time is not taken 
to ask it of God, in the rush of the emergency. 
Such instances of liability to fall away from our 
spiritual integrity by compromising with the 
enemy, and yielding in some obscure but essen- 
tial point of principle, are always accompanied 



The Need of Throne'Life. 91 

with an almost irresistible impression that it is 
necessary for us to decide on the instant between 
our doubts and beliefs, our hopes and fears. 
The enemy's ambassadors, so to speak, reason 
rapidly and talk incessantly, and take advan- 
tage of every moment to parade before our 
eyes their old bottles, ragged clothes, clouted 
shoes, and mouldy bread; in order to fix our 
attention, and forestall our judgment, before we 
can find leisure for prayerful reflection. In 
this way, before we are aware, we are enticed 
into tasting of their victuals ; only to discover, 
when it is too late to profit, that in so doing 
we have plucked fruit from the forbidden tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil over again, 
and involved ourselves in the sin of compromis- 
ing with Satan, and sparing that which God 
has cursed. 

3. THE SIS'ARE OF SATISFACTIOX. 

This is illustrated in the histor}^ of the Israel- 
ites at a later period, when they had grown so 
used to being conquerors, and their enemies to 
being conquered, that they found leisure to 



92 Throne-Life, 

cease from incessant fighting, and to parcel out 
the land into tribal divisions, in compliance with 
the Divine direction. But with all this, — which 
was a majestic act of faith, and had the Divine 
sanction, — they unwarily fell into the sin of 
sluggishness and effeminacy. Beginning in the 
spirit, they ended in the flesh. For we find 
that the consciousness of possession and pros- 
perity overcame them. They grew content with 
the title of full possession, rather than the fact. 
And their self-complacent excuses for not going 
forward to make good all of the Divine prom- 
ises, were ignoble and childish. "TheCannan- 
ites," they said, "had chariots of iron, and 
strong-holds in the hills, and they would dwell 
in the land ! " So the children of Israel soon 
learned to endure and tolerate the presence of 
the foe, and to acquiesce in the humanly inevi- 
table, by accepting tribute, in place of exter- 
mination. All this in the face of the heroic 
protests of Joshua, who cried : " How long are 
ye slack to go to possess the land which the 
Lord God of your fathers hath given you?" 
And what a disastrous fulfillment his prophetic 



The Need of Throne-Life. 93 

utterances had at length, is well known. Their 
enemies tolerated proved thorns in their side, 
provoking them into apostacy, and bringing 
down the Divine retribution. 

All the above has a self-evident spiritual 
application now, in the case of some who are 
the most advanced in Christian life and service. 
Such are at length peculiarly liable to fall into 
the snare of satisfaction. After long familiarity 
with success in fields providentially appointed, 
they are gradually, though unconsciously^ wont 
to tolerate the presence of the enemy in minor 
points of service. Growing self-congratulatory 
over partial conquests, and certain lines of 
success in their work for God, they become 
measurably slothful and indolent as to attempt- 
ing conquest on every side, and as to the 
maintenance of that eternal vigilance which is 
the price of continued victory. They suff'er the 
spiritual Canaanites, ''the principalities, the 
powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world," 
to retain, here and there, a sheltering strong- 
hold in their own weakness and natural infirm- 
ity. They avoid, instead of boldly meeting. 



94 Throne-Life. 

the enemy's chariots of iron, which are reserved 
for his most desperate modes of resistance, and 
content their consciences with moderating his 
power and putting him to tribute, by using, as 
it were, the revenue from things questionable, 
to support the cause of the Lord ! Is not all 
this, and far more, lamentably patent in the 
experience of many Christian warriors, who 
fail to wrest from the foe all of their tribal 
possession of service and reward, as it has been 
divinely assigned, and as it has been ostensibly 
entered upon by themselves ? And is not the 
Israel of to-day painfully cognizant of what sore 
thorns in the side these spiritual Canaanites, the 
evil powers of darkness, have become, through 
the many Laodicean expedients, lapses and 
apostacies ? 

In summary, we may gather at least two 
points, as the main ones in the discussion of 
this chapter, viz : first, that while at every 
stage of the Christian's purpose to simply 
escape from his foes, the world, the flesh and 
the devil, the need of throne-life is apparent, it 



The Need of Throne-Life. 95 

can never become fully apprehended until he 
undertakes to overcome them ; and secondl}^, 
that in the experience of overcoming, the need 
becomes ever more and more vital. 



CHAPTER lY. 



THE POSSIBILITY OF THRONE-LIFE. 

^HE nature and need of throne-life having 
now been amply set forth, the question to be 
determined in this chapter is, whether such a 
life is a practical possibility. 

At first sight, this question may seem to 
many of our readers to be readily settled in 
the affirmative. For does not all orthodox 
sentiment at once reply, ''Yes"? And does 
not current hymnology, familiar to us from 
childhood, respond, ''Amen"? And do we 
not unhesitatingly sing : 

*' Should earth against my soul engage, 

And hellish darts be hurled, 
Then I can smile at Satan's rage, 

And face a frowning world " ? 

To be sure we do ; but, after all, do we find 
in experience that the Arch-Foe is so easily dis- 



The Possibility of Thvoiie-Life, 97 

comfitted ? The question of vital importance 
to consider, therefore, is not what tradition 
and orthodox sentiment and approved hymns 
affirm, but what do our hearts and lives say. 
Are we, in deed and m truth, fully persuaded 
that it is possible for our experience to match 
the sentiments expressed in such hymns as the 
foregoing? Do we know just why we esteem 
such hymns as authoritative, and could not be 
persuaded to deny the correctness of their 
teaching? Is it not because we have a longing 
aspiration to have our experience tally with the 
hymns, and an indefinite hope that at some 
good time to come we majs rather than because 
we have any consciousness of finding it so now? 
But let us not forget that faith for attainment 
in Christian progress, as surely as faith for 
entrance on Christian life, must 1)e based, for 
any practical value, not upon desire or hope, 
but upon the teachings of the Word of God. 
Our reply, therefore, in this little book, to the 
question as to the possibility of a life of over- 
coming in the highest sense, while it agrees 
with orthodox sentiment, only so agrees 



98 Throne-Life, 

because this sentiment is found on investiga- 
tion to accoixl with the Scriptures. 

There are at least three Scriptural considera- 
tions which, taken together, assure the possi- 
bility to the Christian of a life of overcoming in 
the midst of the fiercest Satanic assaults. The 
first is, the fact of positive Scripture statements 
as to our a^^sociation with Christ's present 
enthronement in heavenly places ; the second 
is, the representation in Scripture concerning 
the oflSce of the Holy Spirit to open up to our 
spiritual understanding a view of the surpassing 
blessedness of this heavenly association ; and 
the third is, the power accorded in the Scrip- 
tures to faith, as the executive attribute in 
every redeemed soul, to seize upon all truth 
which the Holy Spirit reveals or unfolds, and 
to turn it to practical account. Surely here, 
in this combination, is a clear and sufficient 
basis for accrediting the heavenly possibility of 
throne-life in Christian experience. Let us 
notice these considerations in the order named. 

1. First, as to the Scripture statements of 
our association with Christ in His enthrone- 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 99 

ment, observe how explicit they are. In 
Eph. 1 ; 20-22, we read, that after the Father 
had raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the 
dead, He seated Him at His own right hand, far 
above all principality and power and might and 
dominion, and every name that is named, not 
only in this age, but also in that which is to come, 
and placed all things under His feet ; and then 
gave Him to be head over all things to the 
Church, which is constituted to be His body. And 
again, in Eph. 2:6, we are assured that, in 
God's purpose and thought, we are just as really 
seated with Christ in His enthronement as we 
are resurrected with Christ. And once more, in 
Eph. 1 : 3, we are told that, in this position, 
we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in 
Christ. 

Now, respecting these expressions, some of 
us may apprehend more significance in the state- 
ment as to our associated resurrection, than in 
that concerning our associated enthronement, 
and may derive more of daily power and com- 
fort from the former ; but why should we ? 
Ought the more wonderful statement to have the 



100 Throne-Life. 

less practical influence over us ? There is the 
same scriptural ground for l)elieviag one state- 
ment as the other. According to the plain 
Word, the higliest Christian life is as possible 
as the higher! Our Lord's experience, from 
the moment when He rose from the grave until 
wow, is the representative experience reckoned 
to every Christian ; and • it is intended that v^^e 
should realize it, in some definite spiritual sense, 
as our own, according to our apprehension of it. 
It is, therefore, important to be noted, that our 
Lord lingered on the earth, in the first stage of 
His resurrection life, for only a brief period 
before He entered upon its second stage, at the 
right hand of the Majesty on high. Therefore, 
as the Scriptures associate the believer with 
Christ in both of these stages, why should not 
that faith which can unquestioningly and practi- 
cally accept of conscious association with Christ 
in the one stage, equally accept of like associa- 
tion in the other? What sound reason can be 
urged for any believer's coming to a stand-still 
en route, and putting up at the half-way spiritual- 
resurrection house in experience, with no serious 



The Possibility of Throne-Life, 101 

thought of the possibility of a further ascent at 
present, in order to reach the very highest level 
of spiritual consciousness in the journey which 
Christ has ended as our representative ? 

2. As to the second consideration in point, 
the office of the Holy Spirit to interpret to our 
spiritual understanding the experimental bles- 
sedness of our highest heavenly association 
with Christ, there is plain Scripture teaching, 
direct and indirect. 

Direct teaching is found in the epistle to the 
Ephesians. The passage in the first chapter, 
from the thirteenth verse onward, is very 
explicit on this point. 

The apostle first acknowledges the ripe spirit- 
ual experience of the Christians at Ephesus, 
and then offers a marvellous prayer that a still 
further stage of advancement may become 
theirs. 

In verse 13, he fully accepts the fact of their 
sound conversion, in that they had savingly 
believed the gospel on hearing it ; faith had 
come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of 
God. " In whom ye also trusted, having heard 



102 Throne-Life, 

(R. V.) the word of truth, the gospel of your 
salvation." He likewise admits that, ''having 
believed" (R. V.), they '' were sealed with the 
Holy Spirit of Promise,. which is an earnest of 
our inheritance." That is to say, subsequently 
to their conversion they had been baptized 
with the Holy Ghost, according to '' the prom- 
ise of the Father" (Acts 1:4), into a con- 
sciousness of spiritual union with Christ in 
resurrection (John 14: 16 — 20). Moreover, 
in verses 15, 16, he further acknowledges that 
their practical walk, in this risen life, has been 
so clearly evidenced by their faith and brotherly 
love, that he is continually impelled to thanks- 
giving on their behalf. ''Wherefore,! also, 
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus 
and love unto all the saints, cease not to give 
thanks for you." 

And yet, just here, and indeed in view of so 
much advancement, he adds, that he offers up 
earnest prayers that they may attain to another 
stage of experience ; which, therefore, with all 
their progress, they could have had no concep- 
tion of as yet ; namely, to a consciousness of 



The Possibility of Thvone-Life, 103 

spiritual association with Christ in His present 
enthronement. Plainly, Paul means this, as an 
analysis of the prayer makes evident. 

He prayerfully^ yearns, in the opening por- 
tion of this marvellous petition, and which may 
be termed the prelude, that an especial and 
definite illumination may be imparted to them, — 
by the Holy Spirit, of course, — in order to their 
obtaining a spiritual conception of certain 
important and amazing particulars which are 
involved in the scope of provided salvation. 
'' Making mention of you in my prayers, that 
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father 
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wis- 
dom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 
the eyes of your understanding being enlight- 
ened, that ye may know," etc. 

Then he proceeds to specify the several par- 
ticulars which he so earnestly desires them to 
understand: and first, ''That ye may know 
what is the hope of His calling." As much as 
to say, that ye may know what is the focal pur- 
pose of God in calling you to be saints, and 
concerning which you are privileged to indulge 



104 Throne-Life. 

a joyous expectation and assurance. And this 
accords with an expression in Paul's epistle to 
the Romans (5:2): ''We have access into this 
grace wherein w^e stand, and rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God." 

What, then, is this focal purpose of God, this 
"hope of His calling," this ''hope of the glory 
of God"? The Apostle does not state it here, 
in any definite, single term, but leaves us to 
climb to his full meaning, step after step, as 
the scope of his prayer unfolds and amplifies 
his thought. And we can successfully climb, 
if we build together the intimations found else- 
where in this epistle as to this focal purpose, 
and then add the corroborative expressions to 
be found in Paul's epistles to other churches. 
And the meaning being thus arrived at, can be 
tested and confirmed by the exactness with 
which it fits into all parts of the prayer, and by 
the way it unifies and illuminates it. 

For instance, we obtain a glimpse of God's 
focal purpose in calling us, in Eph. 1 : 5, 11 : 
"Having predestined us unto the adoption of 
children by Jesus Christ ... in whom also we 



The Possibility of Throne-Life, 105 

have obtained an inheritance." And then a 
clearer view comes from Eph. 3 : 8-11, 21 : 
"The unsearchable riches of Christ .... the 
fellowship of the mystery which from the 
beoinnino' of the world hath been hidden in 
God, who created all things by Jesus Christ ; to 
the intent, that noAV, unto the principalities and 
powers in heavenly places, might be known by 
the Church the manifold wisdom of God ; 
according to the eternal purpose which He 
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord .... Unto 
Him be glory in the Church, by Jesus Christ, 
throughout all ages, world without end, Amen." 
And again, in Col. 1 : 16-18 : ''By Him were 
all things created, that are in heaven, and that 
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers ; all things were created by Him and 
for Him. .... And He is the Head of the 
body, the Church ; who is the beginning, the 
first born from the dead ; that in all things He 
might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased 
the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." 
Now, adding Eom. 8 : 17, 19, 29, the focal 



10() Throne-Life, 

purpose fairlj^ blazes forth : ''If children, then 
heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus 
Christ, .... that we may be also glorified 
together .... For the earnest expectation of 
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of 
the sons of God .... For whom He did fore- 
know, He also did predestinate to be conformed 
to the image of His Son." 

What then, in a word, must be the hope of 
God's calling and the hope of His glory, in 
view of which we are privileged to rejoice with 
exceeding joy ? How can it be anything less, 
and how can it be anything more, than the final 
manifestation of our conformity to the image of 
God's Son, who is '^the brightness of His glory, 
and the express image of His person" (Heb. 
1:3); and our ultimate identification with Him 
in the government of all things in heaven and 
earth ? And surely it was for the realization 
of this purpose that our Lord supplicated in 
that marvellous prayer recorded in the seven- 
teenth of John: ''As thou. Father, art in 
Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in 
Us And the glory which Thou gavest 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 107 

Me, I have given them ; that they may be one, 
even as We are one ; I in them, and Thou in 
Me, that they may be made perfect in One . . . 
Father, I will that thej^ also whom Thou hast 
given Me, be with Me where I am, that thej'' 
may behold My glory, which Thou hast given 
Me." (John 17: 21-24). 

Now, accepting the definition of ''the hope 
of His calling'* to be the one just stated, observe 
how luminous it renders the remainder of the 
prayer, and how it unifies the whole of it. For, 
passing on to Paul's next prayerful desire for 
the Ephesians, we read : ''And [that ye may 
know] what [are] the riches of the glory of 
His inheritance in the saints." This petition 
teaches that God has provided an inheritance 
not only for us^ in our enjoyment of Tlim^ but 
an inheritance or future realization in store also 
for Himself, iw His enjoyment of us. And can 
we not see how God is yet to enter upon an 
enjoyment of His inheritance, in the light of 
His focal purpose to manifest His giorj^ through 
our conformity to, and association with Christ 
over all things? But again, the petition 



108 Throne-Life, 

teaches, in the use of the term "glory of inheri- 
tance," that the magnificence or effulgence 
of His inheritance will be unspeakable. And 
this thought is intensified by the word ''riches," 
in the expression, "riches of the glory," teach- 
ing that the ''riches" or opulent details of that 
final glory are to be more than we can conceive. 
Now, does not all this worthily accord with 
God's focal purpose, and "the hope of His 
calling," and "the hope of His glory"? For, 
as the apostle John joyously exclaims (1 John, 
3 : 2) : "It doth not yet appear what we shall 
be ; but we know that when He shall appear, 
we shall be like Him." And as Paul also 
writes to the Colossians, (3 : 4) : "When Christ, 
who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also 
appear with Him in glory." All these expres- 
sions, thus far, in the prayer, are seen to be 
involved in, and epitomized by the preceding 
term, "hope of His calling " ; and this term con- 
tinues to be the key-note of the prayer. 

The apostle's next prayerful desire for the 
Ephesians is : "And [that ye may know] what 
is the exceeding greatness of His power to us- 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 109 

ward who believe." This desire evidently grew 
out of his preceding desire that they should 
know the glory^ of God's inheritance in His 
saints ; since, in order that God may yet realize 
His inheritance in us, in that degree of glory 
which He has purposed. He must needs work 
in us mightily, to effect the marvellous trans- 
formation required to be wrought in our con- 
dition, in view of what we are now, and of what 
we shall become. 

Then, following, in the prayer, is the Divine 
conception which he would have them know, of 
the measure of this mighty transforming power 
needed to work in them : as beino^ the verv 
same which the Father exercised towards 
Christ, when, as the anointed God-Man, He 
was transferred from the grave, the lowest 
position possible to His humanity, up to the 
Throne of Omnipotence, the highest position 
possible to His Divinity. ''According to the 
working of His mighty power which He 
wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from 
the dead, and set Him at His own right hand 
in the heavenly places, far above all princi- 



110 Throne-Life. 

pality, and power, and might, and dominion, 
and every name that is named, not only in 
this world [''age," margin of R. V.], but in 
that which is to come." 

And finally, the prayer closes w4th the reve- 
lation of the reason ivhy the like degree of 
powder needs to be, and is possible to be exer- 
cised towards the saints as toward Christ. It 
is shown to be, because Christ and His Church 
are constituted one, head and body, so that all 
the honor and power with which the God-Man 
is now invested, was conferred with this fact 
of unity in view. From which it follows, that 
His saints now reign through Him, as an 
earnest of their reigning with Him ; and that, 
moreover, in this conception of unity between 
the Church as the body, and Christ as the 
Omnipotent Head, the Church exhibits the ful- 
ness of God. ''And hath put all things under 
His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all 
things to the Church, w^hich is His body, the 
fulness of Him that filleth all in all." 

But considering the prayer in review, the 
most notable portion is what we have called the 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. Ill 

prelude, as it was that which made the prayer 
of vital importance to the Ephesians, and is the 
portion which must always serve as the key to 
its practical significance. The language is very 
explicit. "Making mention of you in my 
prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Father of glory, may give unto you the 
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowl- 
edge of Him, the eyes of j^our heart (R. V.) 
being enlightened, that ye may know" all the 
fulness of meaning involved in my prayerful 
desires for you, viz : as already noticed. 

What is the especial significance of this pref- 
atory petition ? It is so earnest and explicit 
that we may well study it as of vital importance. 
Here is breathed forth a cry unto God that 
those whom he acknowledges to be advanced 
Christians, may receive, through the Holy 
Spirit, wherewith they are already sealed, an 
especial revelation and enduement of under- 
standing, as the only possible means by which 
they can adequately discern, appreciate and 
appropriate all of the focal lustre of the day- 
star of hope above their pathway ; and so be 



112 Throne-Life, 

thereby emboldened to accept the pledge of the 
Divine purpose, power and glory in their 
behalf, as it is already representatively dis- 
played, in the exaltation of Christ as their 
Head. 

Surely, all this implies that something more 
is desired for them than a merely intellectual 
grasp of certain facts ; otherwise, the Apostle 
would have felt that the several specific desires 
to be emphasized in the prayer he was about to 
utter, would suffice to acquaint them with his 
full meaning. In Paul's yearning for the inter- 
pretation of the Holy Ghost to be added, it is 
evident that he desires them to arrive at a sym- 
pathetic, joyous and experimental perception 
of his meaning, as being something practically 
blessed for them to know. Plainly, he would 
have them understand that all of the glorious 
experience comprehended in his prayer is not 
to be relegated to the future ; is not to be put 
off until the completed Church shall be visibly 
crowned and enthroned with Christ at His 
coming again ; but that, through the in-working 
of the Holy Spirit, there is a present participa- 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 113 

tion of glory possible to be realized from this 
hope of God's calling, from these riches of His 
inheritance, and from this greatness of His 
power towards believers. 

The question, therefore, now is, to determine 
in what sense and measure, and in connection 
with what especial aspect of truth in the prayer, 
this prediction of blessedness may become, 
through the in-working of the Holy Ghost, a 
present experience to believers. 

Surelj^ the needed conscious link between 
the present and the future, may be found by 
uniting the ' 'prelude" with the last and most 
emphatic portion of the prayer. That is to 
say, we are to bring the force of Paul's yearn- 
ing for a spirit of wisdom and revelation to be 
given them in the knowledge of God, as an 
enduement for further knowing, to bear not only 
on the fact that Christ, in His present exalta- 
tion, is a perfected specimen of all the Church 
is to become, and an earnest of God's inheri- 
tance in the saints, so that believers have a 
representative association with Him, but to bear 
also on the fact of His being, even now, related 



114 Throne-Life, 

to the Church as the head to the body, so that 
believers, as already members of His body, and 
indwelt by His Spirit, have a vital union with 
Him ; energetic and sympathetic on His part, 
dependent and confident on theirs. 

Yes, the glorious truth is here directly 
taught, that Christ was not fully exalted until 
He had exhausted earthly experience ; and that, 
when He had thus overcome all things for us, 
as One of us, He thereupon became Head over 
all things to us. And it is further taught, that 
when the Spirit of wisdom and revelation opens 
all this to the eyes of our hearts, we enter into 
a newly discovered and most blessed conscious- 
ness of power in overcoming, through Christ's 
overcoming ! We have here, then, in this 
picture, not only the blessed conception of our 
becoming like Him when He shall appear, and 
we shall see Him as He is, but besides, of our 
having already received of His fulness, grace 
for grace, so that with confidence we can now 
say, "As He is^ so are we in this world !" 

Indeed, the whole epistle concerns the^resent 
blessedness of the Church as being now in 



The Possibility of Throne-Life, 115 

Christ; and emphasizes the necessity of the 
believer's spiritual enlightenment and develop- 
ment in order to apprehend this fact. The 
enduement insisted on as indispensable, if one 
would arrive at the purpose and power of the 
teaching in the epistle, is not simply an ability 
to apprehend and assent to an array of abstract 
and remote facts, even though they be mar- 
vellous and priceless in statement, but a glow 
of intelligent and responsive love, an out-going 
of mind and heart and will towards the person- 
ality of truth, as revealed in its highest pos- 
sible aspects in Jesus Christ, and as being 
veritably and wholly our own ! This feature 
of the epistle is notably exhibited in Paul's 
second prayer for these same believers, in the 
third chapter : — 

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , of whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named, 
that He would grant you, according to the riches 
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by 
His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may 
dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being 



116 Throne-Life, 

rooted and grounded in love, may be able to 
comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth 
and length, and depth and height, and to know 
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge ; 
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of 
God." 

On comparing these two prayers in the 
epistle, we may say that the first petitions for 
an experience of the oSverse side of throne-life ; 
that is, for such a knowledge of Him in whom 
we are enthroned as shall develop into an 
identity of power ; and the second, for an 
experience of the reverse side ; that is, for such 
a knowledge of His being enthroned in us as 
shall develop into an identity of love ; the 
identity in either case being a prelude to the 
glory to be revealed. This reverse side of 
throne-life, Paul condenses into a single term, 
in his epistle to the Colossians (1 : 27) : '^Christ 
in you, the hope of glory." 

It is to be carefully observed that both of 
Paul's prayers for the Ephesians emphasize the 
necessity for an especial spiritual enduement 
in order to experience ; and thus we have 



The Possibility of Throne- Life. 117 

gathered direct Scripture testimony as to its 
being the provmce of the Holy Spirit to lead 
us into a practical realization of our associated 
enthronement with Christ, and of His enthrone- 
ment in us. But there is also much mdirect 
testimony contained in the Scriptures in corrob- 
oration of this point. We need, here, only to 
instance the fact, that, though our Lord soon 
after His resurrection breathed upon the disci- 
ples, saying, "Keceive ye the Holy Ghost," 
as if His breath fulfilled His utterance then 
and there, yet that He afterwards told them 
they must wait until a later period before they 
could receive the enduement which he had pro- 
nounced over them, and which, therefore, His 
breath only symbolized. And the needed 
reason for this delay, we understand by another 
Scripture: ''For the Holy Ghost was not yet 
given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 
And so Peter, in his sermon on the day of 
Pentecost, recognizes the conjunction of the 
two grand events, the enthronement of Christ 
and the descent of the Spirit : ' 'Therefore being 
by the right hand of God exalted, and having 



118 Throne-Life, 

received of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now 
see and hear." 

All this means, that in the economy of grace, 
the Incarnated Second Person of the Trinity 
must have fully finished His earthly mission 
ere the Third Person could come to testify to 
the world with power concerning His redemp- 
tion, by imparting to believers, as anenduement 
for testimon}^, a conscious and manifest token 
of their fellowship with the Captain of their 
salvation in His newly acquired glory. As, in 
the type, it was not until the ascent of Elijah 
that a like enduement of power fell upon 
Elisha, so, in the anti-type, it was not until our 
Lord Jesus Christ ascended, that the Spirit 
which had enabled Him to overcome Satan, fell 
upon the Ohurch^ to empower it to overcome 
likewise. The Head needed to be enthroned 
above all the principalities and powers Avhich 
yet wrestle against the Body in the heavenly 
places, before any consciousness of superiority 
could be imparted to believers as members of 
the Body, in the hour of Satanic assault, 



The Possibility of Throne-Life, 119 

whereby they might prove themselves con- 
querors, and more than conquerors, through 
Hhn that loved them ! 

It is thus seen that the Comforter, whom the 
Lord promised to the Church, and whose office 
it is to convey to us a consciousness of union 
with Christ (John 14: 20; 1 John, 4: 13), is 
the all-sufficient interpreter of throne-expe- 
rience, whereby we realize that we are ''com- 
plete in Him which is the Head of all princi- 
pality and power" (Col. 2 : 10). 

3. The third consideration which enters as 
an element into the possibility of throne-life, 
concerns the province of faith to appropriate 
the ^teachings of the Holy Spirit and render 
them a practical reality in experience. Note 
the conditional reference to this province of 
faith, in the prayer : " And what is the exceed- 
ing greatness of His power to us-ward loho 
believe'^ — present tense. Is not the allusion to 
believing here, to be understood as extending 
beyond the ordinary belief of those who have 
simply entered into a standing or condition of 
faith, whereby they are to be technically classed 



120 Throne-Life. 

as '^believers," that is, true Christians ? Surely, 
this expression, ''to us-ward who believe," 
imbedded here, in this discourse concerning the 
marvellous possibility and pledge of Divine 
assistance, and connected with the apostle's 
prayer that a special revelation may be granted 
to these Christians, in order that they may esti- 
mate this possibility and pledge, implies a wider 
application. For, if there is a needed call for 
their increased knowledge^ through the Holy 
Spirit, in order to recognize the advantages 
belonging to their position in Christ, why not 
also a call for a corresponding increase oi faith ^ 
through the Holy Spirit, in order to approj^riate 
these advantages, and so, to enter into an experi- 
ence of them? Certainly this view of the pas- 
sage accords with the significance of PauFs other 
prayer for these Christians, in the third chapter 
of the epistle : ' ' That He would grant you to 
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the 
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
by faith, that j^e, being rooted and grounded in 
love, may be able to comprehend . . . what is 
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height." 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 121 

So reasoning, therefore, we conclude that the 
expression, " to us-ward who believe," exceeds, 
in its reference, the exercise of that grace of 
faith common to all true Christians, and points 
also^ if not 7xUher, to an additional enduement and 
impetus of faith, whereby it projects itself for- 
ward and reaches upward towards the hope of 
the glory which it freshly discerns. Only such 
faith is fitted to inevitable emergencies ; and of 
such, accordingly, we find the record in the 
lives of those witnesses in the eleventh of 
Hebrews, ''who through faith subdued king- 
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, 
out of weakness were made strong, waxed 
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens," ''received their dead raised to life 
again," and who, seeing the promises afar off*, 
" were persuaded of them, and embraced them." 
It is only to such an outgoing of faith that our 
Lord's prodigality of manifestation is pledged in 
response, in the sixteenth of Mark : "These 
signs shall follow them that believe^ln My Name 



122 Throne-Life. 

shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with 
new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if 
they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt 
them, they shall lay hands on the sick and they 
shall recover." And, in accordance with these 
pledges to such faith, we read of their fulfill- 
ment in the experience of those who exercised 
it : " And they went forth and preached every- 
where, the Lord ^corking ivith tliem^ and con- 
firming the Word with the signs following." 
Hence, we conclude that we shall not go astray 
from the intended scope of Paul's prayer for the 
Ephesians, if we venture to paraphrase the 
expression in question, so as to read: ''And 
that ye may know what is the exceeding great- 
ness of His power to us- ward who believe," 
accordingly as we believe. 

But, in order to more thoroughly estimate the 
province of faith to transmute apprehended 
truth into experience, we need to connect with 
this consideration, the question of the secret of 
faith's power. The secret of the power of ftiith 
lies partly in its loyalty to Christ as leader, its 
self-abandonment in obedience ; and partly in 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 123 

its apprehension of Christ as leader, its intelli- 
gence in obedience. Faith may victoriously 
accept of Christ as leader in successive aspects, 
according to the stage of the conflict. 

In the preceding chapter we saw that there 
are three typical stages of spiritual experience 
— the Egyptian, the Sinaitic, and that in the 
heavenly places, after the likeness of Canaan ; 
and also, three corresponding head-centres of 
enmity to encounter — the w^orld, the flesh, and 
the devil. We saw, moreover, that the believ- 
er's mode of warfare changes with his advance- 
ment, from defensive to aggressive. 

Xow, if the conflict be yet in Egypt, under 
the shelter of the Passover blood, indeed, but 
exposed to the enmity of the world, then faith 
beholds a sufficiency in Christ as the spiritual 
Moses, One come down to deliver, with the rod 
of God, the symbol of power, in hand, and 
backed by the pillar of cloud and fire, the 
symbol of constant Providence. But if the 
battle has advanced to the Wilderness, and the 
deeper, more persistent enmity of the flesh is 
sorely recognized, and the groaning desire is to 



124 Throne-Life . 

entirely escape from its dominion, then the 
Mosaic view of Christ, the semi-legal aspect, 
does not suffice. Now, the absolute need is to 
see Christ as the spiritual Joshua, the successor 
of Moses, One risen from the grave of the flesh, 
and unprovoked by the law, because w^alking in 
the freedom of loyalty, and in the newness of 
life. But if, finally, Canaan be entered, and 
the warfare becomes more truly aggressive, 
being face to face with the Power of Darkness, 
then faith needs to apprehend Christ as some- 
what more than the anti-typical Joshua, the 
resurrected Christ, who, in the power of the 
Holy Ghost, breathes forth the Spirit of testi- 
mony upon His disciples. For now^ if faith 
would prevail, it must gaze upon the unveiled 
glory of Christ as the enthroned Captain of 
salvation, the Author and Perfecter of Faith 
(Heb. 12: 2, R.V). 

But here the reader may be ready to ask, 
" Where is this latest typical change of leaders 
to be found in the Scriptures ? It is plain enough 
how Joshua, the type of the risen Christ, suc- 
ceeded Moses, the type of Christ in earthly life ; 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 125 

but how is the further succession to be typically 
traced, in the displacement of Joshua from the 
position of supreme power, and the accession of 
another ? " It is clearly found in the last 
portion of the fifth chapter of Joshua. But 
before we examine this passage, a word or two 
more on the typical history of Israel, in order 
to better estimate the Christian's spiritual stages 
of deliverance. 

The Passover, the Red Sea, and the Jordan 
are all types of the power of the Cross, as 
increasingly apprehended. The first, gives a 
view of the Cross as delivering from the doom 
of the ivorld. And the believer, having seen 
this, feeds upon the flesh of the Lamb ; that is, 
holds communion with, delights in, and derives 
strength from Christ, as the one whose blood 
shelters him. The second, gives a view of the 
Cross as delivering from the dominion of the 
ivorld. And the believer, so perceiving, now 
recognizes not only, as before, what has been 
done /or him, but also in him; in that he sees 
himself risen up a new creature, that is, a new 
creation, in Christ Jesus. Finally, the third 



126 Throne-Life. 

gives a view of the Cross as delivering from the 
dominion of th^ flesh. And now, the believer 
realizes not only that there is a new creation 
within him, but moreover, that this new crea- 
tion in him is separated from the old. 

Observe the doctrinal parallelism between the, 
passage of the Jordan and that of the Red Sea, 
and yet the advance in experience. Both 
symbolize the spiritual death and resurrection 
of the believer, but the latter intensifies it, in 
the thought of the absolute, practical disconnec- 
tion to be maintained between what is buried 
and what is risen. At the Red Sea, the sym- 
bolism of spiritual death and resurrection is 
seen in the descent and ascent of the Israelites 
through the flood which destroyed the might of 
Pharaoh and his hosts, who are the representa- 
tive embodiments of worldly supremacy ; but at 
the Jordan, besides the symbolism of death and 
resurrection in the safe passage of the Israelites, 
we have an added type of the practical separa- 
tion of their new self from their old self. For, 
at the crossing of the Jordan, a monument of 
twelve stones, as a type of the Israelites them- 



The Possibilihj of Throne-Life. 127 

selves, was left buried in the bed of the river, as 
if to signify that the fleshly self-tyranny of the 
Wilderness was to be henceforth reckoned 
judged and ended ; as absolutely so as the 
worldly supremacy of Pharaoh was judged and 
ended when he and his were buried in the sea. 
And then, another memorial of twelve stones 
was taken /'rom the bed of the river and placed 
on the Canaan shore, as a type of themselves, 
not only as risen to newness of life, but also to 
a perpetual and practical separation from their 
dead and buried selves. 

But still another advancement in spiritual 
apprehension is here symbolized. For, at the 
Jordan, the believer arrives at a definite concep- 
tion of the iDoy in which his spiritual death and 
resurrection, and his daily practical separation 
trom his former self, has been effected ; namely, 
through the literal death and resurrection of 
Christ. For now, he sees doctrinally^ as the 
ground for seeing experimentally^ how all that he 
experiences spiritually, is divinely identified, 
on the occasion of his faith, with what Christ 
experienced literally ; so that he learns to say, 



128 Throne-Life. 

with an assurance never before so consciously 
and joyfully possessed, ''I have been crucified 
with Christ : yet I live ; and yet no longer I, 
but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2 : 20, R.V). 

In order to perceive that this doctrinal and 
experimental symbolism is really set forth in 
the crossing of the Jordan, observe how the 
priests who bore the Ark with its blood-stained 
Mercy-seat — all a vivid picture of the divinely- 
human Christ in vicarious suffering — preceded 
the host, and then stood still in the midst of 
the stream until all the people had passed over. 
In this action and order we have, in a figure, our 
Lord's experience of death and resurrection, as 
a redemptive work both fore-ordained and fin- 
ished, represented as the sole ground of the 
believer's similar experience spiritually. Then, 
notice besides, how the first set of twelve stones 
which were left in the river, and which stood 
for the Israelites after the flesh, were laid in the 
exact spot where the priests had stood ; and 
how the other set, which represented the Israel- 
ites after the Spirit, were taken up from the 
very same place to be deposited on the Canaan 



The Possibility of Throne-Life, 129 

shore. This teaches that not only the believer's 
spiiHtual death and resurrection are divinely 
identified with Christ's literal death and resur- 
rection, but also that the hoii^Yev'^ practical sep- 
aration from his old self is so identified. And 
we know that it is in view of the fact of this 
Divine identification, that the Holy Spirit finds 
eflicacious ground for introducing the believer 
into a blessed consciousness of his practical 
release from the dominion of the flesh, whereby 
he is enabled to put off" the old man with his 
deeds, and to put on the new man ; and thus to 
reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, and alive 
unto God from the dead, with ability, as well as 
desire, to walk after the Spirit in newness of 
life. 

We are now somewhat better prepared to 
gather the symbolical meaning underlying the 
scene of the change of leaders in the fifth chap- 
ter of Joshua. 

We read ; ' ' And it came to pass when Johsua 
was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and 
looked, and behold, there stood a man over 
ao'ainst him, with his sword drawn in his 



130 Throne'Life. 

hand. And Joshua went up to him, and 
said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adver- 
saries? And he said, Nay, but as Captain of 
the host of the Lord am I now come. And 
Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did 
worship, and said unto him. What saith my 
Lord unto his servant ? And the Captain of the 
Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe 
from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou 
standest is holy. And Joshua did so." 

We have already observed that Joshua, viewed 
as Moses' successor, serves as the type of the 
Holy Ghost, or Spirit of the resurrected Christ. 
And this view of Joshua suffices to set forth his 
character as the leader who successfully con- 
ducts believers through the Jordan, the occasion 
of the death of the fleshly supremacy, into 
resurrection residence in heavenly places. But 
this view of Joshua will not be adequate when 
it comes to the matter of overthrowing the 
strongholds of the principalities in the heavenly 
places. For this, there is needed another and 
mightier aspect of Joshua. We need to see 
him not simply as the Spirit of the Christ who 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 131 

rose from the grave, but, moreover, as the Spirit 
of the Christ, the God-Man, who is seated far 
above principalities and powers, and might, and 
dominion, at the right hand of the Majesty on 
high. Hence the significance of the scene in 
the above passage, setting forth the subordina- 
tion of Joshua to the Captain of the Lord's 
host. 

But here, again, possibly the reader may 
inquire, Why, if the succession is changed from 
Joshua to the Captain of the Lord's host, as 
signally as it was previously changed from 
Moses to Joshua, does not Joshua disappear 
henceforth from view ; and why does not this 
Captain continue visibly present ; just as, on the 
former occasion, Moses departed, and Joshua 
remained present? 

The answer is plain : all the difference in the 
two instances is consistent with the fact that 
Joshua is a type of the Holy Ghost who con- 
tinually indwells the Church as that ''other 
Comforter," and who is the representative of 
Christ both risen and ascended, during His per- 
sonal absence, all through this dispensation. 



lo2 Throne-Life. 

The Holy Ghost, who succeeded Christ person- 
ally on earth, now reigns within us, and wars 
through us against Satan ; but all in subordina- 
tion and fealty to Christ personally and invisibly 
above us. It is now the pleasure of the Holy 
Spirit to do all in the name of the unseen Jesus ; 
whose name has been exalted above every name. 

To carry out accurately the spiritual simili- 
tude in the interview between Joshua and the 
Captain of the Lord's host, we should conceive 
of this mysterious Captain as identical with the 
person of Moses risen and glorified ; and always, 
after this interview, we should think of Joshua, 
in his leadership of Israel against the Canaan- 
ites, as being not merely the successor of the 
Moses who had diecl^ but also the spirit of 
the Moses who, so to say, had been raised and 
glorified^ but who here, in this interview, for a 
moment reappeared, in order to commission 
Joshua to lead Israel henceforth only in His 
Name. 

Indeed, all this had been enacted, in epitome, 
long before, having been dramatized, as it were, 
in the history of the Israelites soon after they 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 133 

left Egypt, as a prefigurement of their subse- 
quent experience in Canaan, and as a conspicu- 
ous symbolism of our spiritual experience in the 
heavenly places. The passage referred to is 
found in Exodas 17 : 8-16, which reads : — 

" Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel 
in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, 
Choose us out men, and go out, fight with 
Amalek : tomorrow^ I will stand on the top of 
the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So 
Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and 
fought with Amalek : and Moses, Aaron and 
Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it 
came to pass, w^hen Moses held up his hand, 
that Israel prevailed ; and when he let down 
his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands 
w'ere heavy, and they took a stone, and put it 
under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron 
and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the 
one side, and the other on the other side ; and 
his hands were steady until the going down of 
the sun. And Joshua discomfitted Amalek 
and his people with the edge of the sword." 

This object-lesson, illustrating the spiritual 



134 Throne-Life, 

truths we have been considering, is easily read. 
The scene is laid in the widerness, but it is 
plainly a prefigurement of life in Canaan. The 
Amalekites, as representatives of the princi- 
palities and powers, assail the Israelites, and 
temporarily check their progress. Xow note 
the order of battle. Moses retires from the 
field of action, and ascends the hill that over- 
looks it, leaving the immediate leadership to 
Joshua. All this prefigured what afterward 
took place : that is, the final departure of 
Moses, and his ascent of the mountain whereon 
he died, and the succession of Joshua to the 
leadervship before Israel met the Canaanites. 
Moses here, seated on the top of the hill, hold- 
ing the rod of God as the symbol of omnipo- 
tence, and with his hands upraised in behalf of 
the Israelites, is clearly a type of our exalted 
Head, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on 
high, in prevailing intercession. Then, it is to 
be observed how dependent for success upon 
Moses' rod is Joshua's sword. And so the 
Word, the sharp, two-edged sword of the 
Spirit, becomes effectual in spiritual warfare 



The Possibility of Throne-Life. 135 

only as it is drawn in the name of the crucified, 
risen and ascended Christ. 

All this, so far, we find virtually repeated in 
the scene, and in the results of the interview 
between Joshua and the Captain of the Lord's 
host in the plains of Jericho. But what are 
we to find of a symbolical nature in the fact that 
Moses is accompanied to the hill-top by Aaron 
and Hur, who prove to be needed to support 
his hands in order that the discomfiture may 
be complete? Well, in this, we find an exact 
symbol to set forth the office and power of faith, 
as the executive attribute of the renewed soul, 
whereby we are enabled to claim and appro- 
priate our associated position and privileges 
with Christ in enthronement, and thus to co- 
operate with Him, as members of His body, by 
affording our sympathy, confidence and prayers 
in all His purposes to overcome the enemy. 
Aaron and Hur are representatives of the con- 
gregation of Israel, two being an admissible 
representative number in the Scriptures. And 
accordingly we find the pledge of prevalence in 
prayer assigned in Matt. 18 : 19, to two who 



136 Throne- Life. 

agree in what they ask ; and in v. 20, the reason 
securing the pledge is stated: " For there am 
/ in the midst." 

Therefore, in this passage in Exodus, is por- 
trayed the Divine pattern to which every 
successful campaign of the Church must be 
conformed. The Holy Ghost prevails through 
the Church against the rulers of this world's 
darkness only as the faith of the Church ascends 
to the Throne where Christ sits, accepting of, 
and holding on to, the position which has been 
divinely assigned to the Church as the body of 
Christ, and His needed fulness (Eph. 1 : 23). 

We have now thoroughly considered the 
practical possibility of throne-life, and may 
therefore conclude that its possibility is proved 
by the combined view we have taken of the 
Scripture statements as to our position in 
Christ, the office of the Holy Spirit to reveal 
to us the blessedness of our position, and the 
practical power of faith to appropriate it. 



CHAPTER y. 



THE POAVER IN THRO]SE-LIFE. 

T)EFORE directly considering the question of 
throne-power, a preliminary word concern- 
ing its associated privileges may be allowable. 

THE ASSOCIATED PRIVILEGES OF THKONE-POWER . 

The privileges attaching to throne-life include 
in their scope all the spiritual blessedness provi- 
ded for the believer. We are told, in the third 
verse of the first chapter of Ephesians, that we 
are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heav- 
enly places in Christ." This emphatic state- 
ment is evidently based on the Divine conception 
of our identification with Christ in His exaltation. 
For it is immediately shown, in the course of the 
chapter, that we were chosen in Christ before 
tiie foundation of the world, and have been 
consequently adopted, redeemed, forgiven, illu- 



138 Throne-Life. 

minated, enriched, sealed, and empowered as 
heirs of God and fellow-members of the body of 
Christ. Moreover, each successive statement 
descriptive of this development of Divine love 
in our behalf, is joined to the preceding state- 
ments by a fresh utterance of the word " accord- 
ing," as being significant of their common bond 
of infinite grace and surety. Thus, it is said to 
be, from first to last, all " according as He hath 
chosen us, " " according to the good pleasure of 
His will, " ''according to the riches of His grace," 
" according to His good pleasure which He hath 
purposed in Himself, " "according to the pur- 
pose of Him who worketh all things after the 
counsel of His own will, " and " according to 
the working of His mighty power. " 

Our present blessedness is said to be spirit- 
ual, in that it is revealed and communicated by 
the Holy Spirit, and is adapted to and realized 
by the inner spiritual man, " the hidden man of 
the heart, " and is apart from natural endow- 
ments or carnal gratification. 

Involved in the fact of our enduement of all 
spiritual blessedness, is the possibility of enjoy- 



The Power in Throne-Life, 139 

ing spiritual graces and exercising spiritual gifts, 
as they are communicated through the Holy 
Ghost from the hand of our exalted Lord. 

"When He ascended up on high He led cap- 
tivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. " ''All 
these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as He will. " 

The especial spiritual privilege to be consid- 
ered in this chapter is power, and power comes 
under the head of gifts rather than graces. But 
it does not tend to edification to possess a spirit- 
ual gift without a corresponding grace. The 
exercise of the gifts and the exhibition of the 
graces are alike conditioned on communion 
with Christ our exalted Head. But it would 
seem from Scripture that one may purpose 
to abide in Christ sufficiently for a gift to 
appear in his possession, and yet be neglect- 
ful to so abide in Christ that a companion 
grace may be exhibited. Love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithful- 
ness, meekness and temperance are not as showy 
as wisdom, knowledge, faith to move mountains, 
prophecy, healings, tongues, and interpretations, 



140 Throne-Life. 

but we are taught they are intrinsically more 
vahaable. The apostle holds much discourse in 
tlie twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth chapters 
of the first epistle to the Corinthians concerning 
the gifts and graces conferred by the Spirit. 
He teaches that these gifts and graces are 
designed to be united, and should be sought after 
conjointly. '^ Follow after love, and desire 
spiritual gifts." Bu.t he intimates that it is very 
possible for gifts and graces to become separated, 
and that, in that case, graces apart from gifts 
outweigh gifts apart from graces. " Covet ear-, 
nestly the best gifts ; and yet I show unto you 
a more excellent way. Though I speak with the 
tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, 
I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling 
cymbal. And though I have the gift of proph- 
ecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowl- 
edge, and though I have all faith, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not love, I 
am nothing. " And in the same epistle we have 
the necessity for this warning sadly illustrated 
in the case of some believers, who were tempted 
into making a vain show of their spiritual gifts, 



The Poiver in Throne-Lije. 141 

and thereby excited envy and jealousy in one 
another. 

We may, therefore, venture to liken spiritual 
gifts to alabaster boxes, and spiritual graces to 
the fragrant spikenard which the boxes are fitted 
to hold. And we may possibly conclude that 
some modern evangelists, pastors, teachers and 
workers, after the pattern of some at Corinth, 
having expended their spikenard, are content 
simply to hold on to their unreplenished boxes. 
Because, forsooth, they themselves and others 
were once well assured that the boxes were filled 
to the full with precious spikenard, they seem 
not to be aware of that which all who come 
near them easily detect, that the boxes are 
nearly or quite empty, and that only a trace o 
fragrance remains I What then? Why, their gifts 
from the pierced hand of their enthroned Lord, 
need to be replenished with grace from His 
pierced heart ! They need a spirit of revelation 
to apprehend Christ in the heavenly places not 
simply as Poiver enthroned, and doing all for 
them, but also as Love enthroned, and sharing 
all with them ; not only all of its own, but even 
all of itself! 



142 Throne-Life. 

We would not, therefore, as we proceed to 
centre the reader's attention on the privilege of 
throne-power, and the importance of apprehend- 
ing and attaining it, be understood as lessening 
the need of the throne-graces which should 
gather as a halo about it. When the Seer of 
Patmos was permitted to gaze at the Throne, he 
saw it not in its naked power, but draped, as it 
were, in a rainbow, the symbol of mercy ! 

In now turning to the consideration of power 
in throne-life, w^e shall look at it in several 
aspects, viz : its locality or home-province, its 
nature and measure, the occasions of its exer- 
cise, its essential man-ward element, and its 
modes of action. 

THE LOCALITY OF THRONE-POWER. 

Throne-powder, as one of our exalted spiritual 
blessings, has a two-fold location. It is located 
in the heavenly places^ but only there in Christ. 
The phrase ^'heavenly places" or literally 
^'heavenlies," is found in Scripture only in the 
epistle to the Ephesians, and there but five 
times, viz : 1 : 3, 20 ; 2 : 6 ; 3 : 10 ; and 6 : 12, 



The Power in Throne-Life, 143 

margin. The combined definitions, furnished 
by a comparison of these passages, are to be 
noted, if we would obtain a correct view of 
the character and extended range of the 
''heavenlies." 

From the first two texts we learn that the 
throne of the Father, as the present seat of 
Christ, is included in the sphere of the heavenly 
places. 

Taking together the first and third passages, 
we find that the same position is assigned to us, 
as already resurrected and enthroned residents, 
and that it is the locality of all our spiritual 
blessings, as purposed by the Father, or real- 
ized through our communion with Christ. So 
truly is our ''citizenship in heaven" (Phil. 3 : 20, 
E. V). 

From the fourth and fifth passages we discern 
that multitudes of angelic spirits, both good 
and evil, of varied ranks and orders, indwell, 
or have access to the heavenly places, all of 
whom are observant of our spiritual experience ; 
the evil ones being permitted to oppose our 
progress, compelling us to engage in a fight of 



144 Throne-Life. 

faith. This view seems at first utterly dis- 
hearteoing, and incompatible with the spiritual 
blessedness assigned to us in the heavenlies : 
for who of us may hope for success in contend- 
ing with these superior and malignant beings ? 
But from the second passage, in connection 
with its context, we perceive that Christ's seat 
of authority in the heavenlies is infinitely 
supreme, ''far above" all the combined wisdom 
and might of these warring principalities and 
powers, and that He exercises His authority 
over them all in our behalf, as the occasion 
may require. From this consideration, it is 
seen that our throne-privileges are located, not 
simply in the heavenly places, where also are 
to be found the evil angels whose malice would, 
if possible, impede our enjoyment of these 
privileges, but it is seen that our privileges 
have a further and higher location in Christ 
Jesus, and so are securely beyond reach ol 
evil ! Blessed be God ! Our assigned habita- 
tion, our normal abode for enjoyment, is in the 
highest region of the heavenly places, beyond 
the permitted range of evil spirits, and to this 



The Ponder in Throne-Life, 145 

our faith should therefore boldlj'^, gladly soar ! 

THE MATURE AND MEASURE OF THRONE-POWER. 

Our power in throne-life corresponds, in 
character and extent, with Christ's present 
power as the glorified God-Man, since our 
throne-power is simply Christ's power pledged 
to be exercised in our hehalf, as we are seated 
with Him in the heavenlies. It is in point, 
therefore, to inquire as to the nature and 
measure of Christ's present power. It is plain, 
from the Scriptures, that it is Almighty power 
in the attitude of self-restraint. The full scope 
of its manifestation is held in abeyance while 
yet Christ is seated on His Father's throne. 
Any present manifestation is only an earnest of 
what shall appear when He shall sit upon His 
own throne, as He will do all through the Mil- 
lennial dispensation. When, for the first time, 
He shall a.-sume His proper throne at His second 
coming, it will be no longer simply a matter of 
faith with us, but a matter of sight, that all 
things are subject to Him. For, ''now we see 
not yet all things put under Him," though we 



146 Throne-Life, 

already see Him ' 'crowned with glory and 
honor" (Heb. 2 : 8, 9). When He arose from 
the dead, He could say: ''All power is given 
unto Me in heaven and in earth." Possessed of 
such mio'ht, He is now the Head over all thinofs 
to the Church, reckoned as His body, and in 
process of growth ; and He exercises His power 
providentially in our behalf. Meanwhile, He 
is expecting the appointed hour for His fuller 
coronation, W'hen His enemies shall be visibly 
made His footstool (Heb. 1 : 13 ; 10 : 12, 13). 
Moreover, as He associates us with His 
present glory, so He promises to share the fuller 
glory of that crowning day with the faithi'ul 
among His people. "To Him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even 
as I also overcame, and am set down with My 
Father in His throne" (Rev. 3 : 21). "To him 
will I give pow'Cr over the nations, and he shall 
rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of 
a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even 
as I received of My Father" (Rev. 2 : 26, 27). 
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge 
the world? .... Know ye not that we shall 



The Power in Throne-Life. 147 

judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6 : 2, 3). At the begin- 
ning of, and during the Millennium, The Christy 
the anointed Priest-King, the coming ' 'Perfect 
Man," unto whose full stature we are now 
growing, as members in the body of AYhich 
Jesus is the head — this ' 'Christ,"* Jesus the 
Head, and the Church His Body, visibly 
united, shall be the manifested Ruler of all 
things. Now, as yet, the unity of this Perfect 
Man is spiritual only ; mystical, though actual 
and vital. Now, our life is hidden with Christ 
in God. But when Christ, who is our life, 
shall appear, being no longer hidden away from 
the world's view in God, then shall we also 
appear with Him, ''in glory" (Col. 3: 3, 4). 
And we know, too, that when we shall be thus 
openly manifested as ''the sons of God," in the 
likeness of The 8on^ that even nature itself will 
rejoice, becoming emancipated from its present 
groaning and travailing in pain under the curse 
inflicted for our sake (Rom. 8 : 1-22). 

Thus, both the throne that shall be His, and 
the throne He now occupies, our Lord shares 

*1 Cor. 12 : 12. 



148 Throne-Life. 

with us. On His future throne we shall be 
personally with Him ; on His present throne we 
are with Him representatively^ in God's purpose 
and thought ; generically, as we are born of 
Him ; and spiritually ^ in conscious communion 
with Him, through His indwelling Spirit. 

Reciprocall}^ and essentially, though now 
but inYisibh% Christ is the fulness of the 
Church (Eph. 3: 19), and the Church is 
the fulness of Christ (Eph. 1: 23). Now, 
wdiile as yet the power of the Head for 
His body, and through His body, is only an 
earnest of its full and free scope by and by, 
now, nevertheless, the pledge of its present 
exercise is well-nigh limitless to the faith of 
the Church. ''If ye abide in Me, and My 
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, 
and it shall be done unto you." ''All things 
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye 
shall receive." "If two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching anything that they shall ask, 
it shall be done for them of my Father wdiich 
is in heaven." "Whosoever shall say unto this 
mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast 



The Power in Throne-Life. 149 

into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, 
but shall believe that those things which he 
saith shall come to pass, he shall have what- 
soever he saith." 

Such exceeding great and precious promises, 
at the lavishness of which our faith is so wont 
to stagger, find their basis for possibility and 
confirmation in the assurance given in Eph. 1 : 
19-23, that the degree of the Divine power 
which wrought in Christ when He was raised 
from the dead, the lowest depth of man's estate, 
and which then exalted Him to the height of 
Omnipotence, was exercised tow^ards Him as the 
head of the Church, and is therefore the exact 
measure of the Divine power now in exercise 
through Him, towards us. Moreover, this infi- 
nite basis for possibility and confirmation is 
additionally revealed, in the fact that the Holy 
Ghost, who indwelt Christ as the overcoming 
energy in the days of His temptation in the 
flesh, and who was the effectual cause of His 
present exaltation, thereafter descended fi^om 
the throne-height to indwell the Church, and to 
enable us to overcome in His name ! The Holy 



Ie50 Throne-Life. 

Spirit is thus the^ vital seal of our present iden- 
tification with Christ, and now indwells and 
energizes us as Christ's enthroned Spirit. With 
such a conception in view, our Lord said, ''And 
greater works than these shall he [the believer] 
do, because I go unto the Father." And in 
connection with this marvel of the enduement of 
the enthroned Spirit, it is impressive to recall 
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians : ''That He 
would grant you according to the riches of His 
glory, to be strengthened with might by His 
Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell 
in your hearts by faith . . . that ye might be 
filled with all the fulness of God." 

THE OCCASIONS OF THROXE-POWEK. 

The occasions calling for our exercise of 
throne-power are the continual and critical 
onsets of the principalities, the powers, the 
world-rulers of darkness, and the spiritual hosts 
of wickedness who have access to the heavenly 
places. Some of the devices by which they 
attempt to cloud our vision, weaken our power, 
and lessen our peace, have been already set 



The Power in Throne-Life. 151 

forth in the closing portion of chapter third. 
Their iiim centres in the effort to entice us into 
forgetting our entitled positions of strength and 
glory above them. They seek to draw us down 
from the serene throne-heights to the lower 
range of the heavenly places to which they have 
access, and where they may wrestle against us 
at an advantage. Therefore it is, that the 
apostle Paul enjoins us, in the sixth chapter of 
Ephesians, to be " strong in the Lord, and in 
the powder of His might," and to take on the 
whole armor of God ; having our loins girt 
about with truth, wearing the breastplate of 
righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, being 
shod with the preparation of the gospel of 
peace, carrying the shield of faith, and wielding 
the sword of the Spirit. But all this armor 
will avail us nothing, in the fierce subtilty of 
the conflict, unless we heed the admonition 
which heads the exhortation, to be " strong in 
the Lord, and in the power of His might ;" that 
is, unless we directly exercise our throne- 
power. Otherwise, however admirably adapted 
our weapons may be to our need, through our 



152 Throne-Life. 

doctrinal and experimental knowledge of them, 
yet, at some point of attack or defence, we shall 
tind ourselves sadly worsted. Either our girdle 
of truth will become loosened, or our helmet of 
hope crushed, or the shield of faith penetrated 
or pushed aside, or the sword of the Spirit will 
be struck from our grasp ; until finally, we turn 
and flee ignominiously, dropping our sandals of 
peace in our haste ! 

Two causes of failure in this warfare have 
been illustrated frequently in Christian experi- 
ence : ignorance of the enemy, and contempt for 
the enemy. Peter became sadly familiar with 
both causes ; and so it is his pen that warns us : 
''Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary, 
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, 
seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist, 
steadfast in the faith." Paul, in like manner, 
felt the need of continuing to be wary of the 
foe : for thus he writes to the Corinthians : 
''Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; 
for we are not ignorant of his devices." 

Ignorance is not synonymous w'ith security ; 
neither is a defence to be found in ignoring an 



The Ponder in Throne-Life. 153 

enemy's strength and despising the hour of 
onset. And so they are to be judged unwise 
and foolhardy who conceive that they are too 
spiritually advanced to have need to watch and 
pray lest they enter into temptation. Indeed, 
the fiercest demoniacal attacks, backed by the 
most cunning subtilty, are kept in reserve by 
Satan for the most spiritually minded. We 
may not, with any show of Scriptural authority, 
relegate all of the prowess and wisdom of Satanic 
device to Old Testament times, or to Christian 
experience preceding the Pentecostal unction. 
And it strikes us as a successful exhibition of 
one of the most dangerous forms of Satanic 
attack, when some of the most enlightened and 
spiritual believers venture to say they have 
gotten beyond the bounds of temptation, or, at 
least, of the liability of yielding. What is all 
such conceit but evidence that their vision has 
become blinded by the phosphorescent radiance 
of Satan when robed as an anoel of lio-ht ? The 
Adversary has simply discarded the garb and 
speech wHth which they had grown familiar : 
that is all I He is the same hateful, lying foe 



154 TJtr one- Life. 

as e\^er ; and now to be more guarded against. 
The very summit of his skill is attained when 
he succeeds in making himself despised or for- 
gotten. Some of the deadliest vagaries and 
errors in theory and practice which have 
made havoc in the Church of the past, and from 
the eftect of which Christianity still suffers, 
originated in the speculations and ventures of 
those who were sincere and spiritual, but who 
were mis-led by the Adversary through plausible 
devices. And some of the saddest wrecks 
adrift on the tides of religious experience to-day 
are erratic and fanatical teachers and disciples 
whose motives are unimpeachable. 

But it may be that our peril does not come 
from either ignorance of the enemy or contempt 
for him, but from a sort of passivity of con- 
tentment in view of our heavenly position with 
Christ above the foe. But w^e need to recognize 
not only our position in the heavenlies with 
Christ, but also the necessity for our faith to 
actually co-operate with Christ while there, in the 
hour of Satanic conflict. For though the onset 
of the enemy is Christ's opportunity to deliver 



The Power in TJirone-Life, 155 

us, the co-operation of our faith is His occasion 
to deliver us. Our intercession avails through 
His intercession, since His intercession is ener- 
gized by ours. The Head looks for alliance 
with the members of the Body ; its efficiency 
seeks their co-efficiency. 

And all this we saw typically illustrated in the 
Scripture referred to so fully in the last chapter, 
where Aaron and Hur ascended the hill with 
Moses during the battle with the Amalekites, as 
a picture of believers in the heavenlies with 
Christ, above the warring principalities and pow- 
ers. Observe, that it was not a sufficient cause 
for victory that the three were together in the 
height, but all needed to be concerned, as one 
united head and body, in upholding the rod, the 
emblem of omnipotent povver. Only as the rod 
was raised could Israel prevail ; and only as the 
hands of Aaron and Hur supported those of 
Moses did the rod remain uplifted. The rod 
symbolized power ; and the rod upraised, power 
in exercise.- And when Aaron and Hur support- 
ed the weary arms of Moses, their arms became 
virtually his arms, through which he effected his 



156 Throne-Life. 

purpose to uphold the rod. Aaron and Hur 
then became, so to say, members of Moses' body, 
of his flesh and of his bones. And so is Christ's 
power exercised in our extremity, as our faith 
is exercised in assuming, not only our place in 
the presence of Christ in the heavenlies, but 
also our ofGce of co-eflSciency there as members 
of His body, ^o finite power can resist the 
uplifted rod in the hands of our enthroned 
Christ ; and as our believing hands clasp His 
hands, that rod will remain uplifted in our behalf. 
And then, in the mighty results, we gain a fore- 
taste of the "powers of the age to come," an 
earnest of the time when the Head and body 
shall be manifestly united, and when such events 
as are now marvellous and extraordinary, shall 
be natural and common-place. 

Observe how very marked is the dispensational 
significance of the scene of Moses with Aaron 
and Hur upon the hill, as setting forth the diff*er- 
ence between the present relation of Christ to 
the Church as His body, and the relation which 
He will hold in the age to come. In the atti- 
tude of Moses, for awhile upholding the rod 



The Power in Throne-Life, 157 

alone, and then becoming weary and letting it 
down, we have pictured, as it were, the official 
isolation of the God-Man, as the glorified Head 
apart from the body ; and the consequent limi- 
tations, so to say, disadvantages in administration 
to which He is at present subject, andtheyearn- 
ing need He now experiences for the co-operative 
sympathy and faith of His people. Then, 
finally, in the united response of Aaron and Hur 
to the necessity of Moses, when they laid hold 
of his hands and upraised them, we have set 
forth the power of the agreed faith of believers in 
successfully anticipating the privileges of the age 
to come, by securing a spiritual earnest of the 
future union to be exhibited between the o^lori- 
fied Head and body, and of their combined sov- 
ereignty over, and judgment upon, principalities 
and powers forevermore. In the light, therefore, 
of this sublime picture of the province and power 
of faith in coming ^'to the help of the Lord 
against the mighty" ( Judg. 5 : 23 ) , and in 
proving that " he that is joined unto the Lord is 
one spirit" (1 Cor. 6: 17), how shall we 
lono^er marvel that such exceedinof o-reat and 



158 Throne-Life. 

precious promises are pledged to the prayer of 
faith, or continue to sta2:2:er at them throus^h 
unbelief? 

As a general thought with which to close this 
portion of the chapter, and as virtually an epit- 
ome of much which has been elucidated in this 
and preceding chapters, we remark that, accord- 
ing to our conception of the office of Christ, 
coupled with our faith-hold upon Him, so will 
it be the office of the Holy Spirit to realize 
Christ in our consciousness in a like direction. 
The subjective phase of experience always fits 
into the mould of the objective out-look. If we 
abide in Christ as our Saviour, Christ 
will abide as our Saviour in us, in-breath- 
ing pardon and peace ; if we abide in 
Christ as our Sanctification, Christ as our 
Sanctifier will abide in us, in-breathing pur- 
ity ; and if we abide in Christ as our enthroned 
Overcomer, Christ wdll abide as our enthroned 
Overcomer in us, in-breathing power. ''Abide 
in Me and I in you." We are to ''grow up into 
Him, which is the Head." 



The Power in Throne-Life. 159 

THE ESSENTIAL MAN-WAED ELEMENT IN 
THRONE-POWER. 

The essential man-ward element in our throne- 
power is faith. Our faith is essential, because 
only to its simplicity is pledged the alliance of 
Omnipotence. The ideal faith of the Scriptures, 
at whose service such exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises stand in w^aiting to respond, is 
invariably meek and simple, while it is very 
bold. To see this clearly, let us subject the 
idea of faith to a biblical analysis. 

The current idea of the acme of faith is erro- 
neous. We talk about, and strive after, and 
pray for great faith ; but if we conceive of the 
quantity, rather than the quality of faith, we err. 
The disciples evidently stumbled in this way 
when, on one occasion, they prayed, ''Lord, 
increase our faith." For the reply pointed them 
away from the thought of faith in quantity to 
faith in quality : ' ' If ye had faith as a grain of 
mustard seed. " Our Lord did, indeed, on other 
occasions characterize faith as ''great" or as 
'^little." " I have not found so great faith ; no 



160 Throne-Life, 

not in IsraeP' ( Matt. 8:10). '' O woman, 
great is thy faith " (Matt. 15 : 28). ''Shall He 
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" 
(Matt. 6 : 30). ''O thou of little faith, where- 
fore didst thou doubt ? " (Matt. 14:31). But in 
these passages it is clearly the character, and 
not the bulk of faith that is commended — faith 
undriven by doubt or reasoning, undaunted by 
danger or disaster — and its opposite which is 
disparaged. 

And so, by the same view, we may interpret 
Paul's commendation of the faith of the Thessa- 
lonians as faith which ''groweth exceedingly" 
(2 Thess. 1 : 3), to mean a reference to its qual- 
ity, as certainly as when he tells the Colossians 
that he rejoices in the "steadfastness " of their 
faith (Col. 2:5). 

But the foregoing thought will be better eluci- 
dated by a comparison of what may be termed 
the mustard-seed texts with others which enforce 
the same lesson. 

In Luke 17 : (3, we are taught that faith as a 
grain of mustard-seed may result in uprooting 
a tree ; and in Matthew 17 : 20, that faith as a 



The Power in Throne-Life, 161 

grain of mustard-seed can dislodge a mountain. 
Here the obstacles varj^ greatly in size, while 
the faith is a constant quantity ; in each case only 
* 'as a grain of mustard-seed." We are directed, 
therefore, to a consideration of the quality of 
faith as a motory force, rather than to its quan- 
tity, in order to get at the secret of its strength. 
What, then, is this quality? What is faith in 
its essence, that it should, so contrary to our 
natural thought, remain without increase or 
diminution, though the opposing obstacles are 
at such extremes in size ? A comparison of two 
other texts reveals the secret. 

Mark 11 : 23, teaches ih^i faith ivhich is free 
from doubt removes mountains ; and Matt. 21 : 
21, affirms that faith free from doubt will 
remove, with equal facility, a tree or a mountain. 
Here, then, we see that ''faith as a grain of 
mustard-seed," and faith free from doubt, are 
one and the same, since they succeed in over- 
coming the same extremes of difficulty. And 
we see further, of course, from the negative 
definition of faith here furnished, as being the 
absence of doubt, why the purity of faith can 



162 Throne-Life. 

never vary any more than its quantity. For 
the absence of doubt can never be either more 
or less than its absence. The instant doubt 
begins, faith ends ; and vice versa. Yet there 
may be, and alas ! often is, a rapid and continued 
alternation of faith and doubt ; but in such case 
the faith lacks the mustard-seed essence of hav- 
ing no doubt in its immediate vicinity, and will 
no more succeed in uprooting a tree than a 
mountain. "But let him ask in faith, nothing 
doubting ; for he that doubteth is like a surge 
of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For 
let not that man think that he shall receive any- 
thing of the Lord" (James 1:6, R.V.j. 

At this point there may be need to explain 
the seeming inconsistency of affirming that the 
terms, "great faith" and ''little faith" attach 
to the quality of faith, but not to its quan- 
tity, since it has also been affirmed that the 
purity of faith is just as unchangeable as its 
quantity. The explanation is, that while the 
purity of faith is a constant quality, the tenacity 
of faith is a variable quality. The purity of 
faith is, as we have seen, its freedom from any 



The Power in Throne-Life. 163 

admixture of doubt, and is its constant quality, 
because the presence of any degree of doubt is 
the absence of all faith for the time being. But 
the tenacity of faith is its ability to hold its own, 
to retain its position and prevent its own dis- 
placement by an intrusion of doubt ; and this 
quality is liable to vary with circumstances. 
We may conclude, therefore, that ''great faith " 
means faith apart from all danger of being dis- 
placed by doubt, whatever the obstacle 
encountered; and ''little faith" is faith which 
is easily displaced by doubt, in view of any 
unaccustomed obstacle ; and ' ' faith that groweth 
exceedingly " is faith that is rapidly less and 
less liable to be so displaced. 

There remains to notice a common-sense view 
of this matter, which fully accords with the 
Scripture view just considered. 

It is readily seen that faith is a motor, in no 
case because it is the eause of the removal of an 
obstacle, but simply because it is the occasion. 
Faith of the mustard-seed, mountain-moving 
type — that is, a wee bit of persistent no-doubt 
^can no more, in the nature of things, be the 



164 Throne-Life . 

cause of the uprooting of a tree than of a mouu- 
tam. The mustard-seed is as povverlessly dis- 
proportioned to the one as to the other. Hence, 
being not the cause, but simply the occasion of 
the removal of either, it may remain a constant 
quantity — always infinitesimal. The cause of 
the uprooting of either the tree or the mountain 
must be a power whose source is outside of the 
faith, but which becomes active on the occasion 
of the presence of the faith, and becomes inac- 
tive in its absence. What power is such a 
power? God I 

The potency of faith is to be found in the 
response of Omnipotence to its invocation. 
And herein we can understand still more clearly 
why the greatness of feith attaches to its 
quality, and not to its quantity. It is because 
God needs not our aid, yet loves to accept our 
confidence. Our weakness invites Him, and 
our persistent confidence incites Him. 

Faith is never mountain-moving because it 
moves mountains, but because it does not doubt 
God can move them, and will, at the need. 
Mountain-movins: faith never tries, nor even 



The Power in Throne-Life, 165 

thinks of trying to move monntains. It is fully 
convinced it could not if it tried ; but it is also 
confident it need not try, for God will do it. 

Mustard-seed faith is as undismayed at the 
opposition of a mountain as of a tree ; because, 
first, it does not reflect on its own size, is not 
abashed by self-consciousness, is unconcerned 
about its own insignificance ; and secondly, 
because it does not make a business of measur- 
ing obstacles, has no eye for their relative size ; 
for, as they are all finite, they are all of one 
size to faith — less than God^ equally dispro- 
portioned to Him ! 

''Great" faith, then, is neither self-absorbed, 
nor absorbed with circumstances, but is all- 
absorbed with God. For it recognizes that its 
only duty, yet its all-essential and bounden 
duty, in order to success, is simply to roll its 
little, insignificant mustard-seed self up against 
the foot of the tree or mountain, and lie there, 
looking up at God, watching and waiting in 
confident expectation till He removes it ! 

Corroborative of this view of faith is the 
marvellous exhibition of Joshua's faith in bid- 



166 Throne- Life, 

ding the sun and moon to stand still. The 
stupendous cosmic difficulties involved in the 
miracle are all consonant with the mustard-seed 
variety of faith. There is no contravention of 
the law of faith, as being an infinitesimal, yet 
persistent quantity of no-doubt, and as being 
the occasion, but not the cause of the phenomena ; 
for the tree, the mountain, and the sun and 
moon are really only so m^wj rounds in the 
same ladder of all things made, by which faith 
reaches God. For Joshua spoke not mmedi- 
ately and directly to the sun and moon, l)ut 
mediately and mdirectly, really speaking to 
Jehovah. The record reads : 

' ' Then spake Joshua to the Lord . . . and 
he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou 
still upon Gibeon ; and thou. Moon, in the 
valley of Ajalon " (Josh. 10 : 12). 

And the o^lowina^ orbs obeved, not because 
they lieard, but because He who made them 
held them, in response to the faith of a man who 
regarded what other men call " force," as simply 
the outflowing of the Omnipotent Will ! And 
so it is added : 



The Power in Throne- Life, 167 

''And there was no day like that, before it or 
after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice 
of a man'' (ver. 14). 

Thus we see how bold faith can be, and how 
meek it must be ; and also why it is an essential 
man-ward element in our throne-power. We 
are now prepared to notice some of the 

MODES IN WHICH THRONE-POWER IS EXHIBITED. 

Throne-power finds expression, through faith, 
in at least two ways : by its attitude, or by its 
utterance. 

First, as to its attitude. There may be the 
attitude of working, or the attitude of waiting. 
Either attitude is natural to throne-power, as 
the case may be. The attitude of working is 
assumed when something must be at once 
accomplished, or some obstacle instantly re- 
moved, on the Divine order. The attitude of 
waiting is accepted in persistent patience, either 
when the Divine hour for working has not 
arrived, or after it is over, and the results are 
long delayed. 

Trial is the legitimate field for the exercise of 



168 Throne-Life. 

throne-faith. " Faith is always tried ; unbelief 
never is." There must come an occasion to 
faith, to do or endure in the face of difficulty ; 
to achieve through working, or waiting. In 
proof, turn to the eleventh of Hebrews, which 
has been aptly termed " the Westminster Abbey 
chapter of the Bible." All the embalmed names 
found there of witnesses to the might of faith, 
are to be classified under two heads ; as the 
names of the witnesses w^ho wrought, and of 
witnesses who waited. And, in view of the 
analysis of faith already made, as being the 
occasion, but never the cause of a result, we 
see that this classification is consistent with an 
equal exercise of faith in all these worthies. 
Whether Paul works in planting, or Apollos 
waits in watering, in either case God giveth the 
increase. 

Mark some of the results exhibited by these 
attitudes of throne-power, through faith, in 
this chapter of Hebrews. They "subdued king- 
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained prom- 
ises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sw^ord, 



The Power in Throne-Life, 169 

out of weakness were made strong, waxed 
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens ; women received their dead raised to life 
again ; and others were tortured, not accepting 
deliverance, that they might obtain abetter res- 
urrection ; and others had trial of cruel mock- 
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and 
imprisonment : they were sawn asunder, were 
tempted, were slain with the sword; they wan- 
dered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being 
destitute, afiiicted, tormented — of whom the 
world was not worthy ! " 

True, these mighty overcomers witnessed in 
a former age, before the privileges of throne- 
life had been definitely secured to every believer 
through the death, resurrection and ascension of 
the believer's glorious Substitute, and ere the 
descent of His overcoming Spirit had imparted 
His power, yet, in their individual experience 
there were these exceptional dispensational over- 
lappings, as being indicative of the retrospective, 
as well as prospective virtue of " the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world. " There- 
fore were these records ' ' written for our learn- 



170 Throne-Life. 

ing, that we through patience and comfort of 
the Scriptures might have hope. " 

In the early centuries of the Christian dispen- 
sation there were profuse exhibitions of throne- 
power, such as fulfilled many of the typical 
features of it, presented in this chapter in 
Hebrews ; and there will be, according to proph- 
ecy, other notable exhibitions in the closing days 
of the dispensation. At least two of the typical 
features of throne-powder here set forth, antici- 
pate the meaning of two events which are to 
link the final hours of the present dispensation 
with the opening of the next. The escape of 
Enoch, through translation, before the Flood 
destroyed the world, foretokens the rescue of 
those overcoming saints who shall be caught up 
to meet their Lord prior to " the Great Tribu- 
lation ; " and the preservation of Noah and his 
household through the midst of the Flood, typ- 
ifies the deliverance of other overcoming saints 
who will be called to pass through the woes of 
the coming Tribulation. 

At first thought, after reading of the faith- 
prowess of these worthies in Hebrews, it seems 



The Power in Throne-Lije. Ill 

as if there had been a great lapse in tiie Church 
as to the attitudes of throne-power since the 
early centuries of Christianity, As to the gen- 
eral view, this is so ; but not as to many marked 
exceptions. Signal missionary conquests, against 
terrible odds, in both home and foreign fields, bear 
witness to the continued exhibition of throne- 
power in the attitude of working and achiev- 
ing ; while as to its continuance in the attitude 
of waiting and enduring, the many instances of 
heroic patience which have appeared during 
occasional periods of persecution, present unim- 
peachable testimony. 

Secondly, we are to enquire respecting the 
exhibition of throne-power by the mode of lan- 
guage. Its modes of speech are two : tho^ prayer 
of faith, and, in its highest energy, the command 
of faith. Throne-power lays hold of the exceed- 
ing great and precious promises which encourage 
faith to adopt either of these modes of utterance. 
" All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, 
believing, ye shall receive." "If ye have faith 
as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto 
this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, 



172 Throne-Life. 

and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impos- 
sible to you." Throughout the Scriptures are 
recorded instances where the prayer of faith 
was successfully offered; and also, only less 
frequently, where the command of faith was 
effectually uttered. In the Old Testament, 
Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha notably, 
though exceptionally, attained to the power of 
commanding divine results. But in the New 
Testament this degree of throne-enduement 
becomes, in a manner, common. The twelve 
apostles and the seventy disciples whom Christ 
commissioned, cast out devils in His name, and 
presumably after His own method, vnth a word 
(Matt. 8: 16). It was by a command that 
Paul expelled the sooth-saying spirit from the 
damsel that cried after him at Thyatira (Acts. 
16 : 18) . We find also, that, so natural to faith 
may such a mode of speech have been at the 
time, that one whom the disciples rebuked for 
not following in their company, was found suc- 
cessfully employing it ; and the Lord said, 
''Forbid him not." 

But this most exalted mode of throne-utter- 



The Power in Tlirone-Life, 173 

ance was not reserved to contest cases of 
demoniacal possession. Our Lord frequently 
used it in working other miracles; and so, 
doubtless, did the apostles. Peter thus restored 
the lame man at the beautiful gate of the 
Temple (Acts 3:6), and Paul, in the same way, 
restored the lame man at Lj^stra (Acts 14 : 10). 
In like manner, too, Paul himself had recovered 
his sight at the word of the disciple Ananias 
(Acts 22 : 13). Moreover, in view of the pro- 
fusion of spiritual gifts at the day of Pentecost, 
it is not to be doubted there were frequent cor- 
responding results following this mode of 
throne-utterance . 

It is still the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. 
Our bodies are His temples. By His indwelling 
we have drunk into One Spirit, and are united 
into one body, whose head is the enthroned 
Christ, who is '^ the same yesterday, and 
to-day, and forever.*' In His name we are 
builded together for a habitation of God, 
through the Spirit. The status of provision 
abides the same, if the experience does not, 
from lack of faith. And that both of these 



174 Throne-Life. 

dialects of throne-language, the prayer of faith 
and the command of faith, are appointed to be 
used by the Church until the end of the dispen- 
sation, is evident from an examination of the 
passage in Mark 11 : 22-26, where they are 
found in immediate conjunction. 

^'And Jesus answering, saith unto them, 
Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, 
that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, 
Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, 
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall 
believe that those things which he saith shall 
come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he 
saith,'' 

''Therefore, I say unto you. Whatsoever 
things ye desire when ye pra.y^ believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them. 

''And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye 
have aught against any ; that your Father also, 
which is in heaven, may forgive you your 
trespasses." 

Mark the following points in evidence of the 
matter in question. 

First, in the command, " Have faith in God," 



The Power in Throne-Life. 175 

it is evidently throne-faith they are bidden to 
possess. For they had just witnessed the fig- 
tree withered by a word of command, and 
Peter's comment on the miracle had suggested 
this saying. Then, again, the language literally 
is, '' Have faith of God." That is, as Bengel 
remarks, " Such as those should have, who have 
God;" and such as our Lord Himself had just 
exercised. 

Secondly, the privilege of commanding in 
faith is as fully accorded here to the possible 
experience of the apostles, as the privilege of 
praying in faith. The promises as to the cer- 
tainty of results to follow these utterances of 
faith, are equally definite. 

Thirdly, although only the apostles are here 
immediately addressed, yet these clustered say- 
ings of our Lord are addressed, through the 
apostles, to all believers. This is evidently so, 
from two considerations. For first, the desig- 
nation is not, ''whoever of you,'' but it is 
simply, "whosoever shall say, . . . and shall 
not doubt in his heart." This is one of a 
class of broad Scriptural ' ' whosoevers " whose 



176 Throne-Life. 

possible application covers all who have been 
taught by the Holy Ghost to call Jesus, Lord ; 
that is, all born of God ; and its positive^ indi- 
vidual application, on an emergency, is only 
limited to those of this class whose hearts are 
devoid of doubt as to results. An instance 
of mt^application, that is, of an i^nregenerate 
attempt at such throne-utterance, is recorded in 
Acts 19 : 16, where the demoniac retaliated, 
and assaulted the speaker. 

But another consideration which shows the 
general application of Christ's saying to all 
Christians is, that He immediately connects His 
assurance regarding these wondrous possibili- 
ties embraced in the prayer of faith, with an 
admonition as to the necessity of a forgiving 
spirit during prayer; such an admonition as, 
without doubt, we may familiarly apply to our- 
selves. For surely this injunction concerning 
forgiveness in the midst of prayer, which is as 
immediately addressed to the apostles as is the 
associated assurance concerning faith in the 
midst of prayer, is not addressed to them in 
their peculiar apostolic capacity but to them 



The Power in Throne-Life. 177 

only as representatiye Christians. Now, since 
none of us can hesitate to appropriate this 
admonition about forgiveness during prayer, 
why need we falter in appropriating this encour- 
agement about believing during prayer? And 
if we do not falter at this point in the applica- 
tion, as to believing when we pray — as most 
Christians do not — then why need we stagger, 
through an}^ dazed amazement, at a further 
application, that is, as to the allied encourage- 
ment to believe when we command — admitting, 
of course, the supremacy of the Holj^ Ghost, 
in the choice of the occasion to the o-Jory of 
God? 

In confirmation of this view of the passage in 
Mark, that throne-faith during prayer is our - 
common heritage, compare the similar infer- 
ence to be drawn from James 5 : 14-18. 
Observe how the apostle confirms his encour- 
agement to us to offer prevailing prayer for the 
restoration of the sick, hj citing, as an example 
of the power of prayer, the case of Elijah, when 
he prayed alternately for a drouth and for rain. 
And note again, that the fact is emphasized. 



178 Throne-Life. 

that when he prayed thus effectually, it was 
not in view of his being righteous above others, 
but while he was a man " subject to like 
passions as we are." 

But to return to the passage in the eleventh 
of Mark. Observe how, in the enumeration of 
our privileges, we are, at first, supposed to be, 
so to say, withm the throne-room, in the very 
Holy of holies, to which, as priestly believers, 
we have access, and where we hear the Voice 
from the Mercy-seat, between the Cherubim, 
speaking, and it is done ; commanding, and it 
stands fast, — ''Be thou removed, and be thou 
cast into the sea ! " 

Then we come out, as it were, into the Holy 
Place, the apartment for prayer at the Golden 
Altar, — ''What things soever ye desire when 
ye pray." 

Then finally, we get outside the Tabernacle 
proper, into the Court, where we have forgive- 
ness of sins, — "That your Father also, which 
is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses." 

But let us not think that because we may 
need at times to re-visit the Court, in order to 



The Poicer in Throne'Life. 179 

cleanse ourselves, or for brotherly service in 
cleansing others, therefore our inalienable right 
as priestly believers, to enter the throne pre- 
cinct through the rent vail, is forfeited ! 

But let us trace another fiourative illustra- 
tion of this passage, and call it a mountain 
scene ; and observe how we begin at the 
summit. 

''Have the faith of God." Here is the Shek- 
inah cloud enveloping us. But let us not fear, 
or grow confused, as the disciples did, when 
on the mount of Transfiguration ' 'they entered 
into the cloud." 

"Whosoever shall say unto this mountain," 
etc. Hear we listen to the Voice in the Cloud. 
It is the summit still. 

"When ye pray^ believe that ye have 
received them." Now we have partly descended 
the slope, and are viewing the land-scape of 
possibilities from the height of the table-lands 
of supplication. 

"And when ye stand praying, forgive." 
Now we are among our fellows in the plain at 
the foot of the mountain. And assuredly, 



180 Throne-Life. 

down here, among e very-day matters, tempta- 
tions and trials, we shall meet some instance 
. of demoniacal power, just as the disciples did 
after witnessing the Transfiguration, in order 
to test our mountain-top experience ! 

This order of the pathway of faith, beginning 
with our position .with God, and descending to 
our place with ourselves, our fellows, and our 
difficulties, is GocVs conception, not man's. 
Our unbelief reverses the order. God, in His 
grace, first views us seated, by virtue of the 
session of His Son, at His own right hand in 
the heavenly places. But alas, too often our 
faulty experience belies the comfort and advan- 
tage of all this; and instead, we first view 
ourselves as believers at the foot of the moun- 
tain, and then strive and struggle, and climb ! 
How needlessly, when through such exceeding 
great and precious promises we become par- 
takers of the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). 

Now listen, dear reader, to some strains in 
the hallelujah-chorus of the winged messengers 
that throng the air in these mountain-passes 
through which we have just descended : — 



The Power in Throne'Life. 181 

''The Lord is my light, and my salvation I 
whom shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of 
my life ! of whom shall I be afraid ? When the 
wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came 
upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and 
fell ! 

"Though an host should encamp against me, 
my heart shall not fear I though war should 
rise against me, in this will I be confident ! 

''One thing have I desired of the Lord, that 
will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house 
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold 
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His 
temple. For in the time of trouble He shall 
hide me in His pavilion ; in the secret of His 
tabernacle shall He hide me ; He shall set me 
up upon a rock ! 

"And now shall mine head be lifted above 
mine enemies round about me ; therefore will 
I off*er in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I 
w^ill sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the 
Lord ! " 

"Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head 
of all principality and power." "To the praise 



182 Throne-Life. 

of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath 
made us accepted in the beloved." 

''And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with Christ." "As He is, so 
are we in this world." 



CHAPTER Vl. 



HOW TO ATTAIN THRONE-LIFE. 

rpHE purpose which prompts and will pervade 
this chapter is, to show the practical bearing 
of the doctrine advocated under the name of 
throne-life. And the endeavor will be to write 
plainly and definitely, with the hope of writing 
profitably, for the sake of inquiring believers 
who are sorely conscious of inability to cope 
with their peculiar Satanic besetments. 

The divisions of the chapter will fall into the 
following order : the inquiring believer dealing 
with himself; the inquiring believer dealing 
vritli the Scripture ; the inquiring believer 
dealing with Satan ; some actual instances of 
difficulty and deliverance which have come 
under the author's observation. 



184 Throne-Life. 

V 1. THE INQUIEING BELIEVER DEALING WITH 
HIMSELF. 

It will be sufficient to select a few supposable 
cases of experience, as specimen cases, out of a 
multitude of possible ones, in order to fulfill the 
purpose to write definitely and plainly. In 
each of these supposed cases it will be assumed 
that the individual is spiritually-minded and 
Avholly consecrated, being intently desirous to 
glorify God in life and service. 

Case 1. SATANIC assault THROUGH DOUBTS. 

This believer is conscientious, and at times 
morbidly so ; while yet he often questions 
whether he is or not. But of one thing he is 
perfectly certain, and that is, that he longs to 
attain to an abandonment and restfulness of 
faith in reference to every statement to which 
he finds attached a " thus saith the Lord." But 
with all this sincerity, there is an aspect of 
experience which perplexes and harasses him. 
It is., that a flood of Satanic doubts so often 
overwhelms his faith at his most sacred moments, 
whether when engaged in meditation, prayer, or 



Hoi'j to Attain Throne-Life. 185 

reading the Scriptures. There seem to be then 
put to him the most cunning, ominous and 
malio'nant interroo-atories concernino^ God, the 
Bible, the soul, and the great problems of the 
future. While battling with these questions, 
he feels well-nigh swept away from any firm 
footing upon truth of every kind. Yet against 
them, his conscience, his determination and his 
strength are ever aroused, while ever the diffi- 
culties return after a temporary flight, to find 
him as weak as before. 

More and more, through the habit of prayer- 
ful self-introspection, he has been led to see that 
though these doubts seem to be of himself, they 
are really and wholly of Satan ; and the painful 
conviction comes, to wither all hope of release, 
that he is of necessity, through some peculiarity 
of his organization, a helpless prey to Satan on 
these points. 

Case 2. sataxic assault through blasphe- 
mous AXD DISGUSTIXa SUGGESTIONS. 

The experience of this believer is very nearly 
expressed by Bunyan, when he takes his Pilgrim 



186 Throne-Life, 

through the valley of the shadow of death, 
where, in the darkness, the fiends whisper 
thoughts in his ear which he mistakes for his 
own, and is filled with horror and condemnation 
in consequence. Only after a long period of 
self-torture, it may be, has this believer arrived 
at the fact that the matter is wholly Satanic in 
every instance, and that he is uncondemned. 
Yet, while he finds a degree of relief in know- 
ing this, he is still plagued by the assaults, and 
feels powerless to prevent them. 

Case 3. satanic assault through mysteri- 
ous IMPRESSIONS, VOICES AND VISIONS, 
PLEASANT OR OTHERWISE. 

The believer for a long time looked upon 
these impressions and visions, and listened to 
these voices as all from God, especially because 
they have in many particulars simulated other 
leadings which he has no doubt were divine. 
Therefore, he has fallen into the habit of yield- 
ing to them unquestioningly, until, at length, 
he has almost lost the power of self-control, and 
is virtually their slave. But as they have 



IIoic to Attain Thvone'Life, 187 

frequently led him to contradictory conclusions, 
and to absurd acts and errands, only to leave 
him embarrassed and chagrined afterwards, and 
as they have made God seem unlovable, tyran- 
nical and capricious, and led him to almost 
doubt the Divine goodness and presence, the 
believer at last awakens to see that these im- 
presvsions, voices and visions which have so 
captured his reason, conscience and will, must 
be of Satan. And yet, the habit of hearing 
and heeding them has become so much like a 
second nature that he does not escape their 
poAver to annoy him. 

Case 4. s ataxic assault through invalidism. 

This believer, it may be, has been formerly 
delivered from sickness through prayer and 
faith, and possibly manj^ times, so that his con- 
fidence is well established in taking Christ as 
his physician. But now, on the present occa- 
sion, he feels he is cast into a sea of difficulties. 
For w^hile the main symptoms of his disease 
have disappeared, many minor ones remain ; 
strength does not come, and relapses occur; so 



188 Throne-Life. 

that his faith and wisdom grow contused, and no 
shout of assured victory rings through his soul, 
as on former occasions he was wont to experi- 
ence. Withal, as he prays for light and dili- 
gently examines himself, he is convinced it is 
not due to any departure from God that he is 
not delivered. Indeed, the conviction grows 
upon him that God wills his speedy recovery 
and reinstatement in service, and would be 
thereby more glorified. Yet something secretly 
and mysteriously poisons his faith, just enough 
to prevent complete victory ; and he becomes 
well aware that this something is Satan. 

Case 5. satanic assault through thwarted 

evangelistic, pastoral, or 

Christian service. 

This believer, after prayerful and painstaking 
inquiry, is assured he is where the Lord has 
placed him, and is doing in all respects as the 
Lord would have him do, yet any adequate suc- 
cess is nipped in the bud. And the believer 
has been enlightened to perceive that the cause, 
back of other causes for this, is Satanic inter- 



Hoic to Attain Throne-Life. 189 

meddliiio;. The cunnino- of Satan is detected 
in the web-work of minor causes; such, 
possibly, as the intrusion of hypocritical 
fellow-workers, the persistent counsels of in- 
experienced workers, the whims and mifts of 
weak-minded and self-absorbed workers, or 
again, the secret or open opposition of slander- 
ers, back-biters and gossips. In all this, the 
believer sees the trial of faith, as in a measure 
designed, but the lessening of the Divine glory 
as wholly ^(?^designed of God ; so that he is 
greatly straitened in faith, and distressed in 
spirit. 

Case 6. satanic assault THEOuan pervek- 

SIOX OF NATURAL GRACES AXD GIFTS. 

This believer is baliied in his sincerest desires 
for service by being continually betrayed into 
departures from strict conformity to the Divine 
will and ways — such conformitj^ as secures the 
consciousness of Divine approval — through 
morbid, conscientious, or courteous deference 
to others' opinions, or tender solicitude for their 
infirmities ; or through modesty and diffidence, 



190 Throne-Life. 

or consciousness of his own infirmities. But 
while he is not disposed to excuse himself, he 
has become aware that the blunders which he 
thus falls into so frequently, and which are fatal 
to his full usefulness in God's service, are 
planned and promoted by Satan, whose merci- 
less hands seem to environ him, and to play 
upon his sensibilities. 

Case 7. Satanic assault through trial. 

This believer, having been cast into the 
furnace of affliction, in connection with domestic, 
social, or religious circumstances, has learned, 
through much prayer, that this suffering is all 
ordered of God, and that the Divine will is to 
have it continue ; and in this he acquiesces. 
But his great grief is that his spiritual life is 
hindered by his lack of meekness and patience. 
And, while he can submit to the outward trial, 
he finds it impossible to submit to the inward. 
Especially, as he sees that herein it is that Satan 
secures the advantage, and prevents him from 
exhibiting a spiritual example to others. And 
he is brought to see that, if he could be rid of 



Holo to Attain Throne-Life. 191 

the Adversary's fierce, inward promptings to 
unrest, no outward pressure would unnerve him. 
He longs for a triumphant frame of mind ; for 
the peace passing understanding, that will 
enable him to reign over, as well as to pass 
through, all the trials which may be appointed. 

II. THE IXQUIPaXG BELIEVER DEALING WITH 
SCRIPTURE. 

In all the foregoing cases it was assumed that 
the believer has diligently examined himself, to 
discover if he is clinging to any idol , or holding 
on to any purpose or habit incompatible with 
the Divine approval ; and it was also assumed 
that he has been divinely enlightened to see that 
his misery and annoyance are mainly due to the 
malice of Satan, instigated by a desire to 
impede his progress and usefulness, and mar 
God's glory through him. 

The believer, therefore, having thus thor- 
oughly dealt with himself, and studied his 
situation, is now divinely prompted to search 
the Scriptures, with the desire of finding some 
possible way of deliverance, — some way that 



192 Throne-Life. 

God may have appointed for overcoming the 
cmming prowess of the devil. 

1. SEARCHING FOR THE FACTS OF DOCTRINE. 

Accordingly, he now seeks for the facts of 
doctrine, for definite Scripture statements con- 
cerning our position in Christ. These he finds, 
in accordance with the presentation of texts in 
former chapters, to be as follows : — 

Eph. 2: 6. Our position: Raised up to- 
gether, and seated together in heavenly places 
in Christ Jesus. 

Uph, 1:3. Our privileges in that position : 
" Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 
places in Christ"; which include, of course, 
'* righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost" (Rom. 14: 17). 

Epli, 6 : 12. Our enemies in the neighbor- 
hood of our position : Principalities and powers 
in the heavenly places, who aim to despoil us of 
our consciousness of advantage, in the enjoy- 
ment and exercise of our privileges. 

Eph. 1: 20-22. Christ's position — which 
we have seen to be ours also — supreme above 



Holo to Attain Throne- Life, 193 

that of our foes : Christ raised from the dead, 
and seated at the Father's right hand in the 
heavenl}^ phices, far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every 
name that is named, with all things under His 
feet. 

Eph. 1 : 22, 23. Our association with Christ 
in this glorious supremacy : ''And hath put all 
things under His feet, and gave Him to be the 
head over all things to the Church, w^hichis His 
body.'' 

Eph. 1 : 19, 20. Accordingly, the measure- 
ment of the Divine power toward Christ in thus 
exalting Him, is the same as that exercised 
toward us : "And w4iat is the exceeding great- 
ness of His power to us-ward who believe, 
according to the working of His might}^ power 
which He w-rought in Christ, when He raised 
Him from the dead, and set Him at His ow^n 
right hand in the heavenl}^ places." 

2. SEAKCHING FOR THE KEY TO THE KEALIZA- 
TION or THE FACTS. 

The believer, having now in possession the facts 



1 94 Throne-Life. 

of doctrine concerning his position, rights and 
privileges in Christ, feels that he yet apprehends 
them only intellectually, while he longs to know 
them also experimentally; that is, enjoyably 
and triumphantly. Thus prompted, he searches 
the Word further, if haply he may discover 
some clue to such a possibility ; and rejoices to 
find in 

Epli, 1 : 16-18, The key to the situation : 
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit 
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
Him ; the eyes of your heart being enlightened, 
that ye may know . . . what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to us- ward who believe.'' 

3. USING THE KEY WHEN FOUND. 

The believer now sets to work to apply this 
newly-discovered key ; that is, he begins to 
plead these very words in prayer for himself, 
that he may receive a spirit of wisdom and 
revelation in the knowledge of God ; that he 
may have his eyes enlightened to understand 
and appreciate the hope of God's calling of him, 



IIoio to Attain Throne-Life. 195 

the riches of God's mheritance in him, and what 
is the greatness of God's power towards him, 
believing. Moreover, he determines to use, in 
its exactness, Paul's entire prayer for the 
Ephesians, as a prayer for himself, reasoning, 
that in praying the very desires of the Holy 
Spirit, as expressed in God's Word, he will be 
praying according to God's Avill, and " praying in 
the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20), and so may be 
assured of a most gracious answer, even an 
exceeding abundant one. Therefore, in his 
daily prayers he begins to paraphrase Eph. 1 : 
17-23, somewhat as follows : — 

" O God of my Lord Jesus Christ, Father of 
glory, grant unto me the spirit of wisdom and 
revelation in the knowledge of Thyself, that I 
may know^ what is the hope I should entertain 
as to Thy calling of me ; and what are the 
riches of the glory of Thine inheritance in me 
as one of Thy saints ; and what is the exceeding- 
greatness of Thy power towards me, believing ; 
even according to the measurement of Thy 
powder which wrought in Christ, when Thou 
didst raise Him from the dead, and set Him at 



196 Throne-Life, 

Thine OAvn right hand in the heavenlies, far 
above all principality, and power, and might, 
and dominion, and every name that is named, 
not onl}^ in this age, but that which is to come, 
and didst put all things under His feet, and then 
didst give Him to be the head over all things to 
me, as being a member of His body, the 
Church, and a portion of the fulness of Him 
that tilleth all in all/' 

4. THE KEY OPENS THE DOOR TO EXPERIENCE. 

As a result of thus daily waiting on God, in 
the use of this inspired prayer, the desired 
spiritual understanding is given, and the believer 
is enabled to see old truths in a new light ; 
precious and hitherto unrecognized meanings in 
familiar texts applicable to his needs, and avail- 
able 1o his faith. Among other texts which may 
be pointed out by the Spirit as freshly luminous, 
those that have been used to elucidate the teach- 
ings of this book will be conspicuous, viz. : Ex. 
17 : 8-13 ; Josh. 5 : 13-15 ; 8 : 18, 19 ; Mark 
11: 22-24: Matt. 18: 19, 20; and others. 
Then, too, there will seem to open up to view 



Holo to Attain llir one- Life, 197 

a spiritual and helpful connection in comparing 
1 Kings 10 : 13 — where we are told that Solo- 
mon gave to the Queen of Sheba of his royal 
bounty, not only in the measure of abundance 
which his owai mind suggested, but also gave in 
addition whatsoever she asked — with Matthew 
12 : 42, and John 15 : 7, where we learn that 
our blessed, enthroned Lord, in whose presence 
we stand, is one greater than Solomon, and 
exceeds Solomon in grace, when He says : ''If 
ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye 
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you." 

Thus, through Scripture, the Holy Ghost, in 
response to His own in-breathed prayer, opens 
the believer's understanding to apprehend the 
things therein concerning Christ. And now, 
faith having come by hearing, makes its bold 
venture to attack Satan's strongholds, hitherto 
so invincible, with spiritual weapons which 
prove mighty through God to the pulling of 
them down. 



198 Throne-Life, 

Til. THE INQUIRING BELIEVER DEALING WITH 

SATAN. 

In holy boldness, as bidden in Heb. 4: 16, 
and with an assurance and purpose which would 
have seemed to him before only presumption 
and sin, but which he now feels are God-given 
and inspired, the believer determines on four 
aggressive movements as 

THE ORDER OF BATTLE. 

As a first step, the believer determines hence- 
forth to accredit God's Word as veritably and 
unalterably true, as it has been shown him, 
concerning his present position and privileges 
in enthronement with Christ, far abo\^e all his 
enemies. He decides to take God's view as 
his own view, unquestioningly, from this 
moment, and continually, irrespective of circum- 
stances or appearances. He means to consider 
himself as in Christ, wholly beyond the power 
of Satan to make him miserable. And so, follow- 
ing out this determination, he falls upon his 
knees, and enters into covenant with God as to 
this distinct stand of faith. 



Hoic to Attain Throne-Life, 199 

Secondly, having accepted of his God-given 
position, privileges and rio^hts, he bases on this 
fact his claim to an experience of them as to the 
difficulty in point. So to speak, he begins to 
use the fact as a fulcrum, on vrhich to place the 
lever of faith which is to topple over the mass 
of obstacles. 

Thirdly, he concentrates his will in an unre- 
served and decisive act of faith ; so to say, he 
bears his whole weight on the lever of faith, by 
uttering either the prayer of faith, or the com- 
mand of faith, as divinely led, being confident 
in the faith of God, and without a doubt in his 
heart, that he is following the Divine order, 
and is swayed by the Divine will, according to 
his position in Christ. 

Finally, without waiting for evidence or signs 
at all, he so thoroughl}^ obeys the Divine com- 
mand in Mark 11 : 24, to believe he receives 
when he prays, that he assumes the mountain 
has moved, and so begins at once to act his 
faith in praising, instead of praying. He begins 
to bless God that he has already become more 
than conqueror through Him that loved Him. 



200 Throne-Life, 

THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE. 

This is seen in the believer's serene and 
triumphant state of mind, which is the same 
whether the outward difficulties have at once dis- 
appeared, or whether the form of the discipline 
must for awhile continue. In either case, the 
believer is a conscious victor. If he finds he 
must needs wait for appearances, he realizes, 
meanwhile, the blessedness of waiting in the 
company of Jesus, after the pattern of Heb. 1 : 
13, and 10 : 12, 13, at the Father's right hand, 
above the power of annoyance, and henceforth 
joyfully expecting till his enemies become 
visibly his footstool in the eyes of all. And 
in this mood, he can sing cheerily with the 
prophet Habakkuk (3 : 17-19), '^Although the 
fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be 
in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, 
and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall 
be cut off* from the fold, and there shall be no 
herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
I will joy in the God of my salvation. The 
Lord God is my strength , and he will make my 



Hoiv to Attain Throne-Life. 201 

feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to 
walk upon my high places." 

And the believer especially delights in the 
subscription attached to this verse, as of 
inspired significance : ' ' To the chief singer on 
my stringed instruments.*' For he perceives 
that only the chief singer can sing under such 
appalling circumstances ; and as he now realizes 
that he has become this '' chief singer," the direc- 
tion suits him ; so that he redoubles his praise ! 

And the secret of all this victory is, that the 
Holy Spirit, who enlightened him through the 
Word, to perceive his position, rights and privi- 
leges in the enthroned Christ, and who then 
endued him with faith, to claim them practically, 
has now strengthened him with might in the 
inner man to realize them, in triumphing over 
Satan. Practically, the Amalekites are discom- 
titted ! 

IV. SOME ACTUAL INSTANCES OF THE ATTAIN- 
MENT OF THRONE-POWER AVHICH HAVE COME 
UNDER THE AUTHOR'S NOTICE. 

[^STANCE 1 . After the writer had given an 



202 Throne-Life, 

address on the subject of throne-life in a relig- 
ious meeting, an Evangelist said to him: ''I 
wish I could have a conversation with you upon 
this subject. I have been greatly interested m 
what was said. It is just the experience I am 
needing." 

This remark naturally led to another inter- 
view at the brother's house. And then, in the 
course of a long conversation, he stated that he 
had been very conscious of Satan's hindering his 
service for the Master. While he continued to 
have a measurable success in winning souls, 
there had been a diminishing of power. He had 
instituted prayerful self-examination, and was 
not aware of any daparture from a spirit of 
entire consecration, nor from any known Divine 
method of labor. He had been praying much 
for light and succor ; and said that, while I had 
been speaking, he saw that his deliverance must 
lie in the direction pointed out. 

As a result of our conversation, the brother 
professed to see clear ground for believing that 
the desired throne-power was his as a right and 
privilege, and then knelt to claim it, while he 



Hoiv to 'Attain Throne-Life. 203 

entered into a covenant of faith with God to 
believe that he had received it. And the sequel 
confirmed the reality of the doctrine, and the 
Divine approval on the procedure ; for the suc- 
cess desired, together with a new degree of 
conscious spiritual freedom, immediately fol- 
lowed. At a subsequent interview, some months 
afterwai^ds, the brother reported that his joy and 
power in service had been increased many-fold. 

Instance 2. A devoted Christian lady, who 
had been marvellously raised up in answer to 
prayer when at death's door, became, after an 
interval of several years of perfect health, again 
dangerously ill from a different disease. From 
this attack, too, she rallied in answer to prayer, 
but failed to regain full streng-th, and so remained 
in a semi-invalid condition. But after having 
been much in prayer for light, she received a 
strono' conviction that it was near at hand. 

Soon afterwards, the writer called ; and with- 
out being aware of the assurance she had re- 
ceived, began a conversation on the believer's 
throne-privileges. The subject had not fairly 
opened, before she suddenly interrupted, with 



204 Throne-Life. 

the exclamation, '' This is just the light I have 
been looking for I " And this remark, as maybe 
imagined, led to very earnest effort, on the wri- 
ter's part, to set forth the truth clearly. 

The sister, having accepted of the truth as 
God's truth, was at once enabled to claim, with 
full assurance, both physical and spiritual deliv- 
erance, which began to be immediately realized. 
And now for more than a year she has contin- 
ued to triumph over the enemy in the enjoyment 
of more physical strength than she ever before 
experienced. It seems to her friends who look 
on, that a new life, a new light, and a new joy 
have strangely come to her. 

Insta]s^ce 3. A young Christian lady lay 
very ill, and grew rapidly worse. The writer, 
together with many other friends, had urgently 
besought the Lord for her recovery, but una- 
vailingly as it seemed. But one day when her 
disease appeared to be gaining the victory, and 
she was dangerously sinking, the writer left her 
bedside deeply distressed, and hastened to the 
house of a friend who entertained the same 
views concerning throne-life. We at once knelt 



Hoic to Attain Throne-Life. 205 

together, agreeing to base our petition on the 
fact that we were seated in the heavenlies with 
Christ, and were complete in Him who is the 
head over all principality and power. And as 
we were praying on this wise, and together claim- 
ing our young sister's recovery, suddenly we 
knew, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that we 
had obtained our request : so that we ceased 
praying, and began to praise. 

It is sufficient to say, that on the writer's 
speedy return to the room of the young lady, 
she was found to be up and dressed, and declar- 
ing that she was heale^l. And so it proved, to 
the praise of Clod. She had known nothing of 
our meeting and agreement in prayer. 

" Before they call, I will answer; and while 
they are yet speaking, I will hear " (Is. 65 : 24). 
Instance 4. A Christian lady had the respon- 
sible charge of a large boarding-house, which 
was connected with a religious work ; and she 
was conscientiously endeavoring to fill her posi- 
tion as unto the Lord. Withal, she was ordinarily 
possessed of a most cheerful faith, and had suc- 
cessfully triumphed over many difficulties. 



206 Throne-Life. 

But one day when the writer called, this sister 
was greatly overwhelmed with fresh trouble. She 
stated that the mental and spiritual strain she was 
then undergoing, she feared, would utterly break 
her down. There had been a sudden clashing 
of interests in the house, through the designing 
and evidently malicious attempts of some of the 
inmates. So that, she said, it seemed to her 
that Satan himself was at work, and no mere 
underling of his, in a determination to break up 
the establishment. 

In reply, the matter of throne-life was set 
forth, and she was shown that it was her privi- 
lege, and so within her power, for the glory of 
God, to experience a complete and immediate 
deliverance. 

This truth she saw and accepted, and then 
knelt and claimed a realization of it practically. 
And immediately, while in the midst of her 
petition, she seemed to be filled with an untold 
joy, which caused her t6 shed tears and to break 
out into laughter at the same time, and then into 
rapturous praise. And the result was, that all 
the difficulty at once ceased, as if oil had been 



How to, Attain Throne-Life, 207 

poured upon a rough sea ; and she entered upon 
a new era of joy and victory over many other 
matters besides. 

'' Oh," she exclaimed on a subsequent occa- 
sion, ''how different and glorious it seems, 
when you see Jesus upon the throne ! " 

Instance 5. A Christian lady, a friend of 
the writer, came to him on several occasions in 
the course of three years, seeking for relief, 
through prayer and counsel, from an evident, 
and peculiarly distressing Satanic assault. 

Her peculiar trouble was as follows : She 
was in the habit of much intercessory prayer ; 
a special ministry of prayer seeming to be 
appointed her for the salvation of certain incorri- 
gible sinners who were living in defiance of the 
laws of God and man. She was impressed with 
the conviction that she would yet prevail, to the 
great glory of God. 

But as her intercessions grew more frequent, 
bold and urgent, at the throne of grace, Satan 
seemed to start up in alarm, lest he should really 
lose his hold on the souls of those who had 
served him so slavishly. And, at length, his 



208 Throne-Life. 

endeavors to arrest the progress and power 
of praj^er assumed a very unusual and distress- 
ing form. 

This sister had fallen into the habit, while 
engaged in daily prayer for these individuals, 
and as a help to her faith, of reaching out her 
right hand, as if to lay hold of the particular 
one for whom she might be praying, and to pre- 
sent him especially to the Lord for a blessing. 
And, at such times, it had come to be the case, 
that as surely as she made this movement, her 
hand would be violently shaken, as if the hand 
and arm had been suddenly grasped in anger. 
She would also, at the same moment, see glar- 
ing, fiery eyes turned upon her. But although 
she had always been greatly distressed by these 
assaults, she did not refrain from praying, and 
determined not to cease until the answers should 
come. 

Several times, with intervals of months, as 
already stated, she came to the writer for advice 
and prayer, without any relief being experi- 
enced. But one day, after the writer had been 
led into the apprehension of the truth as it is 



HoiD to Attain Throne-Life. 209 

set forth in this little volume, this sister again 
appeared, and said, among other things, that 
she feared she must become insane if this annoy- 
ance continued much longer. Then it immedi- 
ately occurred to the writer, that the only thing 
she needed for her release from bondage was a 
practical knowledge of throne-life. So we 
talked the matter over at length, and as this 
lady was w^ell versed in Scripture, and fully con- 
secrated, and had had an experience of healing 
from a deadly disease through the prayer of 
faith, the subject was easily made clear to her 
mind. Then came the need of immediately 
putting the knowledge to a practical use ; and 
so the conversation took the following turn : 

''You see, that God says your present posi- 
tion is in the heavenlies in Christ, so that you 
are above the principalities which torment and 
haunt you, and therefore, that they will have no 
power to disturb your peace and joy in the 
Lord, if you begin to use your authority in 
Christ's name. Do you see this?" 

''Yes, I do." 

" Then your case is somewhat like this: It 



210 Throne-Life, 

is as if you were a king's daughter, and pos- 
sessed a princess' rights and privileges. But one 
day, as you are passing through one of the halls 
of the palace, a stout and evil-minded ser- 
vant seizes you, and compels you, under 
threats, to assist him in his work of scrubbing 
the floor. You tremble, and are obedient for a 
while, but after a time find an opportunity, by 
another servant who is passing, to send a mes- 
sage to the king, asking for deliverance. Now 
what form would your message take ? Would 
you ask for help without stating who you are ? 
Would you not bid the servant tell the king 
that you are his daughter, the princess, and to 
be very sure to base your claim for succor on 
that very fact? And would you not find a 
speedy rescue for the same reason ? " 

'' Certainly." 

''You see, then, that from your association 
with the throne, you would demand throne- 
rights, and would take nothing less ; and that as 
soon as you claimed them, and not before, you 
would receive them. Well, let us now apply 
the illustration to your present needs. Are you 



How to Attain Throne- Life. 211 

sure you now heartily believe God, when He 
says you are in the heavenlies in Christ, above 
Satan and all of his, and are complete in him 
who has all things under His feet, and is head 
over all things to you ? Do you believe all this 
to be true this very moment, because God says 
so, irrespective of how it seems to you? " 

'^ Yes, I do." 

" Are you ready, then, to immediately claim 
your privileges and rights, and without a doubt 
or misgiving to believe that you will at once 
obtain them, and Satan be forced to cease these 
assaults ? " 

"' Yes, I am ready to do it." 

" Well, then, will you now kneel and tell the 
Lord so, entering into solemn covenant to 
believe that, as you make the claim to be deliv- 
ered, so all this annoyance will vanish from this 
moment, not to return ? " 

The sister consenting to this, we knelt, while 
she solemnly and audibly acknowledged her 
throne-position, and advanced her claim for 
instant throne-deliverance, and expressed her 
belief that she then and there would receive all 



212 Throne-Life. 

she asked. And it suffices to add, that the result 
proved that the seal of the Divine approvnl 
rested on the covenant and the claim. For from 
that time, though her intercessions for her 
friends continued, and also the habit of extend- 
ing her hand while praying, yet the temptation 
ceased, and her mind was calm and peaceful. 

V. HOW TO MAINTAIN THE EXPERIENCE. 

Probably enough evidence has been adduced 
to prove that the doctrine of throne-power is 
eminently practical to the Christian's need. 
And it will be understood, from the contents of 
this chapter, that throne-power once aftained, 
starting with some signal occasion of need, is 
only to be ^^amtained by a persistent habit of 
aggressive faith in the face of every obstacle. 
Spiritual Canaanites will be encountered at 
every advanced step the believer takes, and 
there will remain much land to be possessed, all 
of which he is entitled to enjoy after conquest. 
The Divine law enacted lono- asfo reoardino; the 
possession of the heavenly places is of pei'pet- 
ual authority: ''Every place that the sole of 



Hovj to 'Attain Throne-Life. 213 

your foot shall tread upon, that have I given 
unto you" (Josh. 1 : 3.) We are, therefore, 
to retain possession, and maintain the suprem- 
acy, on the same condition as that on which we 
attained, namely, through the unintermitted 
exercise of throne-power, momentarily derived 
from our association with Him who is the head 
over all things to us as the members of His 
body. Then, in time, it may come to pass, as 
our experience of heavenly association ripens, 
and our aspirations intensify for more arduous 
service, larger conquests, and extended borders, 
for the sake of the Church and its glorified 
Head, that, for our cheer in the hours of con- 
test, w^e shall dare to appropriate the charge of 
Joshua to the house of Joseph : ''Thou shalt 
not have one lot only, but the mountain shall 
be thine ; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it 
down ; and the outgoings of it shall be thine : for 
thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though 
they have iron chariots, and though they be 
strong ! " 



CHAPTER VII. 



HINDRANCES TO ATTAINMENT. 

T^OUBTLESS readers of this book will enter- 
tain various opinions regarding its contents. 
Of course only Christian readers are here consid- 
ered ; for it is not to be thought that unconverted 
persons will be in the least interested to read, 
nor would they understand if they did read. 
For we are told that ''the natural man receive th 
not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are 
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned." 
(ICor. 2: 14). 

But among Christians who may read, there 
will no doubt l)e different grades of apprehen- 
sion and interest. To some, the contents of 
the book may seem mystical and remote, only 
a mass of hierogl3^phics, a sort of cypher- 
hmguage to which they have no key of interpre- 



Hindrances to Attdinment. 215 

tation. Such will merely be confased by reading, 
unless they wait for the enlightenment of furthei 
experience. To others, the subject ma}^ be not 
Avholly opaque, and yet be but fiiintly luminous. 
Then let them o-aze in the direction of the lio'ht, 
though it be clouded, praying for the interpreta. 
tion of the Spirit, who " searcheth all things, 
yea, the deep things of God." " If any of you 
lack wnsdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to 
all liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall 
be given him." (James 1:5). To others still, 
the topic and treatment may seem fanatical 
and pernicious : and, possibly, bordering on 
inanity, if not insanity. But let them be as 
considerate as the Bereans, who would form no 
rash conclusion as to what was preached, but 
" searched the Scriptures daily, whether those 
things were so " (Acts 17 : 11). 

We have no especial word with any of the 
above classes of readers. But we have a strong 
desiie to offer a helpful parting message to 
another class ; namely, those who recognize in 
what they have read a portrayal of their spirit- 
ual needs, aspirations and failures. Assuming 



216 Throne-Life. 

that they fully accept the proof reodered as to 
the possibility of throne-experience, but are 
puzzled to know why they are so hindered in 
realizing it, we shall endeavor, for their benefit, 
to point out some possible hindrances. And 
we remark, in beginning to do so, that very 
probably the hindrance with them is more 
trifling in its nature, though not in its influence, 
than they think. The enemy makes an impor- 
tant and deadly use of trifles on all the lines of 
temptation, wherewith to deter saint or sinner 
from apprehending truth as it is in Jesus Christ. 
The points, selected, therefore, will be quite 
simple and familiar : and no particular order of 
mention will be needful. 

FIRST HINDRANCE : IMPERFECT DESIRE. 

It may be, dear reader, that you are not 
actuated by as pure an aspiration in seeking to 
be an overcomer as you imagine. You ask, and 
receive not ; not, indeed, because you would 
consume it on your lusts ^ as did those to whom 
the apostle James wrote, but because you desire 
to consume it upon some spiritual advantage^ 



Hindrances to Attainment. 217 

rather than upon God's glory. That is to say, 
your motive in seeking, may not be as pure as 
your conviction of need in seeking. And so, 
Satan is permitted to baffle you ; for ' ' God is 
not mocked." 

Or again, your desire, though pure, may be 
skiggish and inefficient. You are more content 
to rest in a '* higher" Christian life than to seek 
the highest, if the attainment is to cost the 
surrender of even those subtle reservations of 
self-will which are imbedded in your natural, 
and otherwise morally indifferent characteris- 
tics ; such, for instance, as curiosity, critical 
nicety, independence, policy, or other indivi- 
dual trait — reservations which were hardly 
recognizable at former seasons of consecration, 
but which now consciously prevent your full 
enjoyment of provided salvation. 

Let such an one search after every hidden 
chamber of imagery to cleanse it ; praying for 
light ; knowing that if in anything he be other- 
wise minded than God's mind, God will reveal 
it unto him. 



218 Throne-Life. 

SECOND HINDRANCE : SENTIMENTAL, HEAD- 
KNOWLEDGE OF THE DOCTRINE. 

Theoretically you believe you are in heavenly 
places in Christ. You accept the doctrine as 
Scriptural, and assert and proclaim it, but yet 
you derive no practical advantage from it. It 
affords you no sense of present victory and joy. 
Indeed, you never dreamed that the doctrine 
was designed to bring you into any pro- 
portionate experience of power over Satan. 
Plainly, then, the fallacy in your faith is the 
common one of mistaking an intellectual appre- 
hension of spiritual truth for a spiritual appre- 
hension of it. Such fallacious faith has the 
shine and show of reality, but is like veneering 
and varnish, being surface, but not substance. 

For example, you believe in your heavenly 
position as many unconverted people believe in 
Christ as their Saviour, or as many ileshly- 
biased Christians believe in Christ as their 
sanctification ; that is, with no corresponding 
deliverance being experienced or witnessed. 
But while, from your own experience, you 



Hindrances to Attainment. 219 

know that it is possible to enter upon successive 
and definite stages of joy and liberty, as Christ 
is apprehended, at first for justification, and 
then for sanctification, yet, as to your accept- 
ance of your enthronement with Christ in the 
heavenly places, that has brought you no con- 
sciously added advantage. Therefore, your 
need now is, to pray for a spirit of wisdom and 
revelation to be given you, that you may be 
enlightened and empowered to rejoice anew, in 
view of all the truth to which you intellectually 
assent. 

THIRD hi:ndraxce : currejS^t proverbs, and 

TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS. 

These, it may be, bear iron rule over your 
faith as to the possible range of spiritual victory 
beyond certain conventional, orthodox bounds. 
Alas ! in the new dispensation as well as the 
old, the traditions of the elders may prove very 
subtle in evil influence. For, though spiritual 
believers will pay no regard to the authority of 
carnal elders^ they are liable to become enslaved 
by the dictum of spiritual elders. There are 



220 Throne-Life. 

many embalmed theories in the Church which 
are held in reverence for their antiquity ; but 
those who adore them unquestioningly, end in 
having their experience embalmed along with 
them ! 

FOURTH HINDRANCE I REMNANTS OF SELF- 
CONFIDENCE. 

These exist because there is no utter death to 
self. It is only when the floods of grace sub- 
merge us, and we are drowned, that we fully 
consent to know our nothingness, and God's 
suificiency. All degrees of the depths of grace 
are needed in experience : the depth that covers 
the ankles, when ^e^consciousness as to our 
walk and way is lost in (7Ar^s^-consciousness ; 
the depth that reaches to the knees, when self- 
congratulation concerning our devotion and 
communion is displaced by the all-absorbing 
conception of Christ's radiance ; the depth that 
rises to the loins, when any self-complacency as 
to power for service is lost in such an utter 
sense of weakness that Christ's strength is made 
perfect in us ; and finally, the flood that rises to 



Hindrances to Attainment. 221 

the neck, and over the head, until all conceit of 
knowledge, and wisdom, and reasoning, and 
intellectual grasp, is lost in such a revelation of 
Christ as made unto us wisdom, that we exclaim, 
" All Thy waves and Thy billows [of grace] are 
gone over me ! '* Surely we must consent to 
utter death, before we can enjoy fullest resurrec- 
tion ; must submit to be conquered by grace, 
ere we can reign in glory I It was not until 
the angel had prevailed over Jacob, by touching 
the hollow of his thigh, so that he could no 
longer wrestle, but only cling, that Jacob pre- 
vailed over the angel, and obtained the blessing. 
'' Everyone that exalteth himself shall be 
abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall 
be exalted." 

FIFTH HINDRANCE : SEEKING THE REALIZA- 
TION OF AN EXPERIENCE, RATHER THAN THE 
REALIZATION OF CHRIST IN EXPERIENCE. 

This is the old, thread-w^orn folly c)f seeking 
for an it, instead of for Him. The anxious 
sinner often falls into this error, by longing to 
feel saved, instead of accepting Christ as his 



222 Throne-Life, 

Saviour from sin and misery. The believer 
who is weighted with a consciousness of the 
dominion of the flesh, frequently errs in striving 
after a sense of purity and freedom, instead 
of admitting Christ as the all-satisfying, in- 
dwelling substitute for the flesh, and the con- 
tinual annihilator of its power according to the 
proportion of faith. And so, likewise, the 
believer who realizes how stoutly he is beset, 
and how often worsted, by principalities and 
powers who antagonize his service for Christ, 
is wont to struggle for power to overcome, 
instead of trusting Christ as the overcomer for 
him, in him, and through him each moment. 

SIXTH HINDRANCE : INADEQUATE APPREHEN- 
SION or THE SCRIPTURES. 

Too many, among those who have realized 
their entrance by faith into the heavenly places, 
fail of growth and progress therein, because they 
continue to go to the Scriptures daily for 
manna ^ instead of ''the old corn of the land." 
The manna of truth, falling daily in bright little 
portions, and vanishing with the dew, may 



Hindrances to Attainment. 223 

sustain the wilderness pilgrims, but will not 
prove sufficient to feed the strength of those 
called to war with spiritual Canaanites. The 
''old corn of the land," that is, such a diligent, 
prayerful comparison of the Scriptures as will 
bring to view the deep things of God which are 
in Christ, is the only spiritual food suited for 
those who realize themselves to be resurrected 
with Christ. Manna is, indeed, a precious 
emblem of the true Bread which carrie down 
from heaven, but ''the corn of wheat" repre- 
sents more ; even that precious Seed which 
died that It might not abide alone, but become 
quickened, and spring up, and multiply in the 
lives of others ! "The words that I speak unto 
you," said Jesus, "they are spirit, and they are 
life." 

Only as the believer in the heavenly places 
feeds his strength on Christ in the Scriptures 
as "the old corn of the land," does he grow 
competent to use the Scriptures in another 
appointed way, viz : as an aggressive and 
unerring weapon against the Adversary, by 
means of which he is enabled to unmask his 



224 Throne-Life. 

cunning and put him to flight by a simple 
''It is written !" 

SEVENTH HINDRANCE : NEGLECTING TO TARRY 
AT GILGAL. 

Gilgal was the first, and the needed" resting- 
place of the children of Israel after entering the 
land. There they tarried to attend to the 
neglected matter of circumcision. Observe, that 
it was possible for them to enter the land 
uncircumcised, but not to advance against the 
enemy in that condition. 

Now there are, it is to be feared, many 
uncircumcised believers in the heavenly places, 
who attempt in vain to overcome the enemy 
when he contests their service for Christ. They 
have failed to thoroughlj^ roll away ''the 
reproach of Egypt," which clings to them in va- 
rious natural traits and habits. They have faith, 
the basis-characteristic needed for the heavenly 
places, but because they do not tarry long 
enough at Gilgal, they fail in one point upon 
which the Apostle Peter insists, in his second 
epistle (1 : 5-7), as being of vitaljimportance ; 



Hindrances to Attainment. 225 

namely, in adding to faith virtue (fortitude) ; 
to virtue knowledge ; to knowledge temperance ; 
to temperance patience ; to patience godliness ; 
to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to broth- 
erly kindness charity ; so that they sooner or 
later become, in a large degree, barren and 
unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. 

Scripture enjoins on believers in the land, 
the rite of spiritual circumcision in at least 
three directions : that of the heart, lips and 
ears. 

Circumcision of the heart. This pertains to 
the purification from pride of our desires and 
affections ; our motives and thoughts ; our 
resolutions and decisions ; whether in reference 
to God or our fellows. And imperatively 
does God demand this of us (Lev. i% \ 41 ; 
Deut. 30: 6). 

Circumcision of the lips. This is important, 
too; for ''Out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh." And again, "By thy 
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words 
thou shalt be condemned.'* 



226 Throne-Life. 

In Ex. (>: 12, 30, Moses inquires of God 
how he shall appear before Pharaoh and effect- 
ually declare God's message while his lips are 
uncircumcised. Isaiah (6: 5), bemoans his 
lack of strength to endure the sight and service 
of the King, the Lord of hosts, because of 
unclean lips. And evidently the unruly tongue, 
which the apostle James contrasts with beasts 
and birds, is a tongue uncircumcised; and yet 
he speaks of it, in admonishing believers as to 
their liabilities of speech. And, indeed, what 
a multitude of untamed tongues are to be found 
astray among professing Christians ! Here are 
a few: parrot tongues — thoughtless, noisy, 
random chatterers ; peacock tongues — con- 
ceited, vaunting, grandiloquent, talking on 
parade ; fox-like tongues — sly and deceitful ; 
doggish tongues — whining and snarling; frog- 
like tongues — incessantly croaking ; crow-like 
tongues — over social and gossipy; buzzard 
tongues — delighting in off-scourings and car- 
rion; and, among many more, serpent tongues 
— be-sliming, stinging, back-biting, accusing 



Hindrances to Attaimnent. 227 

the brethren I ''These things ought not so to' 
be" (James 3: 10). 

Ci7Xumcision of the ears. Jeremiah exclaims : 
^ 'Their ear is micircumcised ; they cannot 
hearken. The word of the Lord is unto them 
a reproach ; they have no delight in it" (Jer. i] : 
10). And Stephen (Acts 7 : 51,) cries : "Ye 
stiff-necked and micircumcised in heart and 
ears." From which Tve gather that an uncir- 
cumcised ear is one that is wilfully deaf to the 
Word of God and the voice of the Spirit. And 
such an ear is not found exclusively among 
worldlings, but is frequently met with among 
believers, in reference to God's highest com- 
mands as to life and service. Hence, we are 
bidden in Mark 4: 23, 24, to take heed vjhat 
we hear ; and in Luke 8 : 18, to take heed hoiv 
we hear. And surely, as to ichat we hear, we 
are not to heed the voice of rumor, or preju- 
dice, or pride, or self-will ; and as to hoiv to 
hear, we are to listen to God attentively, wdll- 
ingly, and obediently. And for learning all 
this, we need to tarry for discipline and trial 
at Gilgal ! 



228 Throne-Life. 

EIGHTH HINDKANCE : FAILUKE TO DISCERN 
THAT IT IS THE PUKPOSE OF THE HOLY GHOST 
TO OVER-LAP AND ANTEDATE THE DISPENSA- 
TIONS IN OUR EXPERIENCE, IMPARTING EAR- 
NESTS OF THE FULNESS TO COME, IN PRO- 
PORTION TO OUR FAITH. 

Just what is meant by this statement, will 
appear as we proceed. Personally, Christ as 
the Head, and the Church as the Body, are now 
apart ; but, as we have seen in preceding 
chapters, they are together spiritually. In 
this sense, Christ is with us here; and we are 
with Christ there. But there are some believers 
w^ho cannot clearlv distino'uish between the 
personal and spiritual facts; and so, to them, 
Christ is there, and not here ; and we are here, 
and not there. 

But again, among those more discerning, 
there are a greater number who perceive Christ 
to be spiritually here with us, than there are 
who perceive that we are spiritually there with 
Christ. Both classes may be in conscious 
possession of spiritual peace and power, yet 



Hindrances to Attainment. 229 

the consciousness of peace will exceed that of 
power in the first class, and the consciousness 
of power will exceed that of peace in the last 
class. But for a properly developed experi- 
ence, we need to combine the experience of 
these two classes. 

Possibly a reference to Scripture types may 
aid the believer's spiritual discernment at this 
point. 

We know the Jewish tabernacle was con- 
structed after a Divine pattern, and under the 
immediate supervision of the Holy Ghost, who 
especially endowed the appointed artificers, 
Bezaleel and Aholiab, with wisdom for their 
work. But we have need to refer to but one 
feature of the construction for our purpose 
here ; which is, to point out how the tabernacle 
not only set forth, by the hanging Vail, the 
limited privileges of the old dispensation, in 
the separation thus maintained between the 
holy and the most holy place, but how it also 
prefigured, by the significant construction of 
the innermost of the four coverings composing 
the roof, the removal of the separation between 



230 Throne-Life, 

the apartments, and so, the greater privileges 
of the Christian dispensation. 

This innermost covering consisted of two 
great curtains of five breadths each ; the 
material and appearance being like that of the 
Vail, in all the details of fine-twined linen, blue, 
purple and scarlet colours, and needle-wrought 
cherubim ; and the two curtains w^ere held 
together by fift}^ clasps of gold ; and evidently, 
directly over the Yail. " From the similarity 
of construction, it follows that whatever spirit- 
ual signification attached to the Vail, must have 
belono;ed to this innermost coverino; also. But 
we know, from Heb. 10 : 20, that the Vail 
denoted the humanity of our Lord ; by the 
rending of which in death, and our Lord's sub- 
sequent resurrection, believers now^ have access 
to the holiest of all (Cf. Heb. 9 : 3-8 ; 10 : 
19-20). 

Now^ observe : the beautiful Vail, hanging down 
unrent, and touching the ground, signified the 
predetermined incarnation of our Lord, and His 
dwelling among men previous to His Cross ; and 
this unsaerijiced incarnation only proved a bar- 



Hindrances to Attainment. 231 

rier, by its inimitable perfection, in the way of 
the believer's access to God's immediate pres- 
ence. But the same Vail placed overhead^ in 
the position of resurrection and exaltation, hav- 
ing been, as it were, rent and repaired, for the 
set purpose, as declared at the time of its con- 
struction, that there might be '' one tabernacle" 
(Ex, 26 : 6), and no longer two apartments — 
this, certainly prefigured, for the believer then, 
the privileges that now accrue from completed 
redemption. 

Moreover, it is significant that the clasps 
which held the curtains together were of gold, 
instead of silver or brass, the other metals 
which entered into the construction of the tab- 
ernacle. For the three metals, as has been 
observed by others, in view of their various uses 
and positions in the tabernacle, seem to have 
severally symbolized the following : brass, the 
suff^erings of Christ, the curse borne ; silver, the 
redemptive value of that suffering ; and gold, 
the grace and glory resulting, as now known in 
the manifestation of the Spirit, whereby we 
become partakers of the Divine nature, and 



232 Throne-Life. 

aware of our union with Christ as joint-heirs.* 
May we not surmise that that prophetic, gold- 
clasping Spirit of the Mosaic dispensation, 
divined, within the consciousness of the Psalm- 
ist, somewhat of the distant, perspective expe- 
rience which was signified by the covering cur- 
tains of the tabernacle, when he penned : ''He 
that dwelleth in the secret place of the most 
High, shall abide under the shadow of the 
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my 
refuge and my fortress ; my God, in Him will I 
trust. . . . He shall cover thee with His feath- 
ers, and under His wings shalt thou trust " ? Or 
again : " One thing have I desired of the Lord, 
that will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the 
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to 
behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire 
in His temple ; for in the time of trouble He 
shall hide me in His pavilion ; in the secret of 
His tabernacle shall He hide me " ? 

* The use of gold in the tabernacle, to symbolize the 
glory and unity of the Church with Christ, is marked in 
the seven-branched candlestick, and in the mercy-seat and 
cherubim on it — one piece ! 



Hindrances to Attainment. 233 

Now, in concluding, let us turn to the New 
Testament for an analogous lesson in point. 

Too many believers, in this dispensation of 
Pentecostal fulness, see no farther into the bene- 
fits of secured salvation than Peter and John did 
when they gazed into the empty tomb of our 
Lord. For we learn, from John 20 : 6, 7, that 
they saw ''the linen clothes lie ; and the napkin 
that was about His head not lying with the 
linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place 
by itself. " 

Now, aside from the probable design in this, 
as an evidence of the deliberation and quietness 
with which Jesus had risen, offsetting any possi- 
ble suspicion that his body had been stolen, 
what else may this studied separation of the 
garments have signified ? Did it not intention- 
ally symbolize the dispensational parting of the 
Head from the Body, Christ from His Church? 
Yes, surely : and this is all that many believers 
now discern concerning the relative positions 
of their Master and themselves ! 

But certainly, since the Holy Ghost has now 
been shed abroad, in response to the last prayer 



234 Throne-Life. 

of our Lord, that His people might consciously 
know their oneness with Himself, all believers 
should be enabled to affirm, with the same assur- 
ance as the apostle John, long after his disap- 
pointing visit to the tomb, '' Hereby know we 
that loe dwell in Him [where He is] , and He in 
us [where we are] , because He hath given us of 
His spirit, . . . Because as He is [in glory] , 
so are we in this world (1 John 4 : 13, 17). 

And now, dear reader, allow by way of 
emphasis, a brief and final repetition of some of 
the practical advantages incident to an over- 
lapped and antedated dispensational experi- 
ence, as we have endeavored to portray them; 
thus putting you in remembrance of them, 
though you know them. In a word, if you are 
possessed of such an experience, you will not 
delay to overcome principalities and powers 
until you are personally crowned with Jesus, 
and radiant with His glor3\ being like Him 
when he shall appear ; neither will you be cast 
down utterly, nor fail to rejoice when enduring 
for His name's sake ; nor be enticed into send- 
ing out spies for evidence to confirm the naked 



Hindrances to Attainment, 235 

promises of the great ''Amen"; but, remem- 
bering that all thmgs work out for you a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of gloiy, 
and that, even meanwhile, " as He is, so are we 
in this world," you will come off more than con- 
queror I And, although your experience may 
voice, at times, the bitterness in the lines we 
venture to append, yet it will, besides, assuredly 
voice the consolation ! 

CLOUDS. 



•• With clouds He covereth the light, and commandetli it not to 
shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt .... And now, men see not 
the bright light which is in the clouds."— Job 36 : 32; 37 : 21. 

Clouds float across my sky I 

Whose sky is free? 
Those clouds have floated by — 

More come, I see. 

The first were winged with wind, 

These drag with rain ; 
Those breezes calmed ray mind. 

These torrents pain. 

These clouds, like mountains steep, 

Loom black as night ; 
Their fateful lightings leap 

To scathe my sight I 



236 Throne-Life. 

The sunlight breaks anew, 
Haloed with hope ; 

As though to me God threw 
A golden rope ! 

And while the glory grows 
And smites me blind, 

A rarer vision glows 
Within my mind. 

Empurpled clouds, with rents 

Of molten gold, 
And pearly battlements, 

My thoughts behold. 

And gates I see, and w^alls 

Of precious stone, 
And where a rainbow falls 

Around a Throne ! 

And placed by hidden hands, 

That fitful gleam. 
As erst, a ladder stands 

Within my dream ; 

And shining feet ascend, 
And voices call : 
"Beclouded soul, attend! 
God welcomes all. 

*' Thy faith by prayer may climb 
All clouds above. 
To dwell for aye, sublime. 
Where light is love ! " 



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